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Z. F. SMITH, 

.Mcmlicr (if riiL- I'lU^.M Chil, 



FILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS No. 19 



THE 



Battle of New Orleans 



INCLUDING THE 



Previous Engagements between the Americans and the 

British, the Indians, and the Spanish which 

led to the Final Conflict on the 

8th of January, 1815 



BY 



ZACHARY F. SMITH 

Member of The Filson Club and Author of a History of Kentucky 
and School Editions of the same 



ailuBtratfb 




LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY 

JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY 

Printers to The Filson Club 

1904 



^K 

M^ 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

3AN 4 1904 

1 Copyright Entry 
CLASS a- )0<c. No. 
cfbpY B " 



COPYRIGHTED BY 

The Filson Club 

and All Rights Reserved 
1904 



8^ 



PREFACE 



I I 



>^ ' . y N the preparation of the following account of the 

"Battle of New Orleans," I have availed myself of 
all accessible authorities, and have been placed under obli- 
gations to Colonel R. T. Durrett, of Louisville, Kentucky. 
I have had free access to his library, which is the largest 
private collection in this country, and embraces works 
upon almost every subject. Besides general histories 
of the United States and of the individual States, and 
periodicals, newspapers, and manuscripts, which con- 
tain valuable information on the battle of New Oi'leans, 
his library contains numerous works more specifically 
devoted to this subject. Among these, to which I have 
had access, may be mentioned Notices of the War of 1812, 
by John M. Armstrong, two volumes, New York, 1840; 
The Naval History of Great Britain from 1783 to 1830, 
by Edward P. Brenton, two volumes, London, 1834; 
History of the Late War, by H. -M. Brackenridge, Phila- 
delphia, 1839; An Authentic History of the Second War 
for Independence, by Samuel R. Brown, two volumes. 
Auburn, 181 5; History of the Late War by an American 



iv Preface 

(Joseph Gushing), Baltimore, 1816; Correspondence 
between General Jackson and General Adair as to the 
Kentuckians charged by Jackson with inglorious flight, 
New Orleans, 181 5; An Authentic History of the Late 
War, by Paris M. Davis, New York, 1836; A Narrative 
of the Campaigns of the British Army by an Officer 
(George R. Gleig), Philadelphia, 1821; History of Louis- 
iana, American Dominion, by Charles Gayarre, New York, 
1866; The Second War with England, illustrated, by J. T. 
Headley, two volumes. New York, 1853; History of the 
War of 18 1 2 between the United States and Great Britain, 
by Rossiter Johnson, New York, 1882; The Pictorial 
Field-book of the War of 181 2, by Benjamin J. Lossing, 
New York, 1868; The War of 181 2 in the Western Country, 
by Robert B. McAfee, Lexington, Kentucky, 181 6; His- 
torical Memoirs of the War of 1 814-18 15, by Major A. 
Lacarriere Latour, Philadelphia, 1816; Messages of James 
Madison, President of the United States, parts one and 
two, Albany, 18 14; The Military Heroes of the War of 
1812, by Charles J. Peterson, Philadelphia, 1858; The 
Naval War of 181 2, by Theodore Roosevelt, New York, 
1889; The History of the War of 1812-15, by J. Russell, 
junior, Hartford, 1815; The Glory of America, etc., by 
R. Thomas, New York, 1834; Historic Sketches of the 
Late War, by John L. Thomson, Philadelphia, 18 16; 
The Life of Andrew Jackson, by Alexander Walker, Phila- 



Preface v 

delphia, 1867; A Full and a Correct Account of the Mili- 
tary Occurrences of the Late War between Great Britain 
and the United States, by James Williams, two volumes, 
London, 18 18. 

I have also been placed under obligations to Mr. 
WiUiam Beer, librarian of the Howard Library of New 
Orleans, which has become a depository of rare works 
touching the history of the South Mississippi Valley, and 
especially relating to the War of 181 2 and the battle of 
New Orleans. A Hst of all the works in this library which 
Mr. Beer placed at my disposal would be too long for 
insertion here, but the following may be mentioned: 
Claiborne's Notes on the War in the South, Goodwin's 
Biography of Andrew Jackson, Reid and Easten's Life 
of General Jackson, Nolte's Fifty Years in Both Hemi- 
spheres, Report of Committee on Jackson's Warrant for 
Closing the Halls of the Legislatvire of Louisiana, The 
Madison Papers, Ingersoll's Historic Sketch of the Second 
War between Great Britain and the United States, 
Cooke's Seven Campaigns in the Peninsula, Hill's Recol- 
lections of an Artillery Officer, Coke's History of the Rifle 
Brigade, Diary of Private Timewell, and Cooke's Narra- 
tive of Events. No one would do justice to himself or 
his subject if he should write a history of the battle of 
New Orleans without availing himself of the treasures 
of the Howard Library. Z. F. Smith. 



INTRODUCTION 



ENGLAND was apparently more liberal than Spain or 
France when, in the treaty of 1783, she agreed to the 
Mississippi River as the western boundary of the United 
States. Spain was for limiting the territory of the new 
republic on the west to the crest of the Alleghany Moun- 
tains, so as to secure to her the opportunity of conquering 
from England the territory between the mountains and 
the Great River. Strangely enough and inconsistently 
enough, France supported Spain in this outrageous effort 
to curtail the teiTitory of the new republic after she had 
helped the United States to conquer it from England, 
or rather after General Clark had wrested it from England 
for the colony of Virginia, and while Virginia was still in 
possession of it. The seeming liberality of England, 
however, may not have been more disinterested than the 
scheming of Spain and France in this affair. England 
did not believe that the United States could exist as a 
permanent government, but that the confederated States 
would disintegrate and return to her as colonies. The King 



viii Introduction 

of England said as much when the treaty was made. If, 
then, the States were to return to England as colonies, 
the more territory they might bring with them the better, 
and hence a large grant was acknowledged in the treaty 
of peace. The acts of England toward the United States 
after acknowledging their independence indicate that the 
fixing of the western boundary on the Mississippi had as 
mvich selfishness as liberality, if indeed it was not entirely 
selfish. 

The ink was scarcely dry upon the parchment which 
bore evidence of the ratified treaty of 1783 when the 
mother country began acts of hostility and meanness 
against her children who had separated from her and 
begun a political life for themselves. When the English 
ships of war, which had blockaded New York for seven 
long years, sailed out of the harbor and took their course 
toward the British Isles, instead of hauling down their 
colors from the flagstaff of Fort George, they left them 
fijdng over the fortification, and tried to prevent them 
from being removed by chopping down all the cleats for 
ascent, and greasing the pole so that no one could climb 
to the top and pull down the British flag or replace it by 
the colors of the United States. An agile sailor boy, 
named Van Arsdale, who had probably ascended many 
trees in search of bird's nests, and clambered up the masts 



Introduction ix 

of ships until he had become an expert cHmber, nailed 
new cleats to the flagstaff and climbed to its summit, 
bearing with him the flag of the new republic. When 
he reached the top he cut down the British flag and sus- 
pended that of the United States. This greasy trick 
may have been the act of some wag of the retiring fleet, 
and might have been taken for a joke had it not been 
followed by hostile acts which indicated that this was 
the initial step in a long course of hostility and meanness. 
But it was soon followed by the retention of the lake 
forts which fell into British hands during the Revolution- 
ary War, and which, by the terms of the treaty, were to 
be surrendered. Instead of stirrendering them according 
to the stipulations of the treaty, they held them, and not 
only occupied them for thirteen years, but used them as 
storehouses and magazines from which the Indians were 
fed and clothed and armed and encouraged to tomahawk 
and scalp Americans without regard to age or sex. And 
then followed a series of orders in council, by which the 
commerce of the United States was almost swept from 
the seas, and their sailors forcibly taken from American 
ships to serve on British. These orders in coimcil were 
so frequent that it seemed as if the French on one side 
of the British Channel and the English on the other were 
hurling decrees and orders at one another for their own 



X Introductiou 

amusement while inflicting dire injuries on other nations, 
and especially the Americans. 

Had it not been for these hostile acts of the British 
there would have been no War of 1812. Had they con- 
tinued to treat the young republic with the justice and 
liberality to which they agreed in fixing its western bound- 
ary in the treaty of 1783, no matter what their motive 
may have been, there would have been no cause for war 
between the two countries. The Americans had hardly 
recovered from the wounds inflicted in the Revolutionary 
War. They were too few and too weak and too poor to 
go to war with such a power as England, and moreover 
wanted a continuance of the peace by which they were 
adding to the population and wealth of their country. 
What they had acquired in the quarter of a century since 
the end of the Revolutionary War was but little in com- 
parison with the accumulations of England during long 
centuries, and they were not anxious to risk their all in 
a conflict with such a power; but young and weak and few 
as they were, they belonged to that order of human 
beings who hold their rights and their honor in such high 
regard that they can not continuously be insulted and 
injured without retaliation. The time came when they 
resolved to bear the burdens of war rather than submit 
to unjustice and dishonor. 



Introduction xi 

In the French and Indian war which preceded the 
Revolution there was fighting for some time before a 
formal declaration of war. The English drove the French 
traders from the Ohio Valley, and the French forced out 
the English while the two nations were at peace. The 
French chassed from one of their forts to another with 
fiddles instead of drums, and the English with fowling- 
pieces instead of muskets rambled over the forest, but 
they sometimes met and introduced each other to acts 
of war while a state of hostility was acknowledged by 
neither. Something like a similar state of things pre- 
ceded the War of 1812. Tecumseh was at work trj'ing 
to tmite all the tribes of Indians in one grand confederacy, 
ostensibly to prevent them from selling their lands to the 
Americans, but possibly for the purpose of war. While 
he was at this work his brother, the Prophet, had con- 
vinced the Indians that he had induced the Great Spirit 
to make them bullet-proof, and the English so encour- 
aged them with food and clothing and arms that they 
believed they were able to conquer the Americans, and 
began to earn,' on hostilities against them without any 
formal declaration of war by either party. The battle 
of Tippecanoe, which came of this superstition among 
the Indians and this encouragement from England, may 
be considered the first clash of anns in the War of 181 2. 



xii Introduction 

The English took no open or active part in this battle, 
but their arms and ammunition and rations were in it, 
and after it was lost the Indians went to the English and 
became their open allies when the War of 1812 really 
began. Whether the English were allies of the Indians 
or the Indians allies of the English, they fought and bled 
and died and were conquered together after the initial 
conflict at Tippecanoe, in 181 1, to the final battle at New 
Orleans in 181 5, which crowned the American arms with 
a glory never to fade. 

The Filson Club, whose broad field of work in history, 
literature, science, and art is hardly indicated by the name 
of the first historian of Kentucky, which it bears, has 
deemed three of the battles which were fought during 
the War of 18 12 as the most important of the many that 
were waged. These three were, first, the battle of Tippe- 
canoe, regarded as the opening scene of the bloody drama; 
second, the battle of the Thames, by which the power 
of the British was crushed in the west and northwest, 
and third, the battle of New Orleans, which ended the 
war in a glorious victory for the Americans. The Club 
determined to have the history of these three battles 
written and filed among its archives, and to have the 
matter published for the benefit of the public. Hence, 
the task was undertaken by three different members of 
the Club. 



Introduction xiii 

The first of these, "The Battle of Tippecanoe," was 
prepared for the Club by Captain Alfred Pirtle, and pub- 
lished in 1900 as Filson Club Publication Number 15. 
It is an illustrated quarto of one hundred and sixty-seven 
pages, which gives a detailed account of the battle of 
Tippecanoe and the acts of the Indians and British which 
led to it and the important consequences which followed. 
The names of the officers and soldiers, and especially those 
of Kentucky who were engaged in it, are given so far as 
could be ascertained, and the book is a historic record 
of this battle, fioll enough and faithful enough to furnish 
the reader with all of the important facts. 

The second, "The Battle of the Thames," the 5th of 
October, 181 3, was undertaken by Colonel Bennett H. 
Young, and appeared in 1903 as the eighteenth publi- 
cation of the Filson Club. It is an elaborately illustrated 
quarto of two hundred and eighty-six pages, and presents 
a detailed account of the acts which led up to the main 
battle and the engagements by land and water which 
preceded it. It contains a list of all the Kentuckians who 
as officers and privates were in the battle. The reader 
who seeks information about this battle need look no 
further than its pages. 

The third and last of these important battles occurred 
at New Orleans the 8th of January, 181 5. Its history 



xiv Introduction 

was prepared for the Club by Mr. Z. F. Smith, and now 
appears as Filson Club Publication Number Nineteen, 
for the year 1904. It is an illustrated quarto in the 
adopted style of the Club, which has been so much 
admired for its antique paper and beautiful typography. 
It sets forth with fullness and detail the hostilities which 
preceded and led to the main battle, and gives such a 
clear description of the final conflict by the assistance 
of charts as to enable the reader to understand the 
maneuvers of both sides and to virtually see the battle 
as it progressed from the beginning to the end. This 
battle ended the War of 181 2, and when the odds against 
the Americans are considered, it must be pronounced 
one of the greatest victories ever won upon the battle- 
field. The author, Mr. Z. F. Smith, was an old-line Whig, 
and was taught to hate Jackson as Henry Clay, the leader 
of the Whigs, hated him, but he has done the old hero 
full justice in this narrative, and has assigned him full 
honors of one of the greatest victories ever won. Although 
his sympathies were with General Adair, a brother Ken- 
tuckian, he takes up the quarrel between him and Gen- 
eral Jackson and does Jackson full and impartial justice. 
If Jackson had been as unprejudiced against Adair as 
the author against Jackson, there would have been noth- 
ing like a stain left upon the escutcheon of the Ken- 



Introduction xv 

tuckians who abandoned the fight on the west bank of the 
Mississippi because it was their duty to get out of it rather 
than be slaughtered hke dumb brutes who neither see 
impending danger nor reason about the mistakes of supe- 
riors and the consequences. He who reads the account 
of the battle of New Orleans which follows this intro- 
duction will know more about that battle than he knew 
before, or could have learned from any other source in so 
small a compass. 

R. T. DURRETT, 

President of The Fihon Club. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



The Author, Frontispiece 

Seat of War in Louisiana and Florida, 8 

Position of the American and British Armies near New 

Orleans on the 8th of January, 1815, 24 

Battle of New Orleans, on the 8th of January, 181 5, . 56 

General Andrew Jackson 72 

General John Adair, 112 

Governor Isaac Shelby 164 

Colonel Gabriel Slaughter, 174 



The Battle of New Orleans 

Gulf Coast Campaign, Preceding the Final 
Struggle. 

ON the 26th of November, 18 14, a fleet of sixty great 
ships weighed anchor, unfurled their sails, and 
put to sea, as the smoke lifted and floated away from 
a signal gun aboard the Tonnant, the flagship of Admiral 
Sir Alexander Cochrane, from Negril Bay, on the coast of 
Jamaica. Nearly one half of these vessels were formid- 
able warships, the best of the English navy, well divided 
between line-of-battle ships of sixty-four, seventy-four, 
and eighty guns, frigates of forty to fifty guns, and sloops 
and brigs of twenty to thirty guns each. In all, one 
thousand pieces of artillery mounted upon the decks 
of these frowned grimly through as many port-holes, 
bidding defiance to the navies of the world and safely 
convoying over thirty transports and provisioning ships, 
bearing every equipment for siege or battle by sea and 
for a formidable invasion of an enemy's country by land. 
Admiral Cochrane, in chief command, and Admiral Mal- 
combe, second in command, were veteran officers whose 
services and fame are a part of English history. 



2 The Battle of Neiu Orleans 

On board of this fleet was an anny and its retinue, 
computed by good authorities to number fourteen thou- 
sand men, made up mainly of the veteran troops of the 
British miUtary forces recently operating in Spain and 
France, trained in the campaigns and battles against 
Napoleon through years of war, and victors in the end in 
these contests. Major Latour, Chief Engineer of General 
Jackson's army, in his "Memoirs of the War in Florida 
and Louisiana in 1 8 14-15," has carefully compiled from 
British official sources a detailed statement of the regi- 
ments, coi-ps, and companies which constituted the army 
of invasion under Pakenham, at New Orleans, as follows: 

Fourth Regiment — 

King's Own, Lieutenant-colonel Brooks 750 

Seventh Regiment — 

Royal Fusileers, Lieutenant-colonel Blakency 850 

Fourteenth Regiment — 

Duchess of York's Own, Lieutenant-colonel Baker. . . 350 
Twenty-first Regiment — 

Royal Fusileers, Lieutenant-colonel Patterson 900 

Fortieth Regiment — 

Somersetshire, Lieutenant-colonel H. Thornton 1,000 

Forty-third Regiment — 

Monmouth Light Infantry, Lieutenant-colonel Pat- 

rickson 850 

Forty-fourth Regiment — 

East Essex, Lieutenant-colonel Mullen 750 



The Battle of Neiv Orleans 3 

Eighty-fifth Regiment — 

Buck Volunteers, Lieutenant-colonel Wm. Thornton. 650 
Ninety-third Regiment — 

Highlanders, Lieutenant-colonel Dale 1,100 

Ninety-fifth Regiment — 

Rifle Corps, Major Mitchell 500 

First Regiment — 

West India (colored), Lieutenant-colonel Whitby. . . 700 
Fifth Regiment — 

West India (colored). Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton. . . 700 

A detachment from the Sixty-second Regiment 350 

Rocket Brigade, Artillery, Engineers, Sappers and 

Miners 1,500 

Royal Marines and sailors from the fleet 3.500 

Total 14-450 

Including artillerists, marines, and others, seamen of 
the ships' crews afloat, there were not fewer than eigh- 
teen thousand men, veterans in the service of their coun- 
try in the lines of their respective callings, to complete 
the equipment of this powerfvil armada. 

At the head of this formidable army of invasion were 
Lord Edward Pakenham, commander-in-chief; Major-gen- 
eral Samuel Gibbs, commanding the first, Major-general 
John Lambert, the second, and Major-general John Keene, 
the third divisions, supported by subordinate officers, 
than whom none living were braver or more skilled in 



4 The Battle of New Orleans 

the science and practice of war. Nearly all had learned 
their lessons under the great Wellington, the conqueror 
of Napoleon. Since 1588, when the combined naval 
and military forces of England were summoned to repel 
the attempted invasion and conquest of that country 
by the Spanish Armada, the British Government had 
not often fitted out and sent against an enemy a com- 
bined annament so powerful and so costly as that which 
rendezvoused in the tropical waters of Negril Bay in 
the latter autiomn days of 18 14. Even the fleet of Nelson 
at the Battle of the Nile, sixteen years before, where 
he won victory and immortal honors by the destruction 
of the formidable French fleet, was far inferior in number 
of vessels, in ordnance, and in men to that of Admiral 
Cochrane on this expedition. The combined equipment 
cost England forty millions of dollars. 

In October and November of this year, the marshal- 
ing of belligerent forces by sea and land from the shores 
of Europe and America, with orders to rendezvous at 
a favorable maneuvering point in the West Indies, caused 
much conjecture as to the object in view. That the 
War Department of the English Government meditated 
a winter campaign somewhere upon the southern coasts 
of the United States was a common belief; that an inva- 
sion of Louisiana and the capture and occupation of New 



The Battle of New Orleans 5 

Orleans was meant, many surmised. For reasons of 
State policy, the object of the expedition in view was 
held a secret until the day of setting sail. Now it was 
disclosed by those in command that New Orleans was 
the objective point, and officers and men were animated 
with the hope that, in a few weeks more, they would 
be quartered for the winter in the subjugated capital 
of Louisiana, with a dream that the coveted territory 
might be occupied and permanently held as a posses- 
sion of the British Empire. 

The Government at Washington was advised that, 
during the summer and early autumn months of 18 14, 
our implacable enemy was engaged in preparations for 
a renewal of hostilities on a scale of magnitude and activity 
beyond anything attempted since the war began; but 
it seemed not fully to interpret the designs and plans 
of the British leaders. Especially vmfortunate, and fin- 
ally disastrous to the American aiTns, was the inaptness 
and inertness of the Secretary of War, General Arm- 
strong, in failing to adopt, promptly and adequately, 
measures to meet the emergency. For almost a year 
after the destmction of the English fleet on Lake Erie 
by Commodore Peny, and of the English anny at the 
battle of the Thames by General Harrison, a period 
of comparative repose ensued between the belligerents. 



6 TJie Battle of New Orleans 

The British Government was too much absorbed in dehv- 
ering the coup-de-main to the great Napoleon to give 
attention to America. But her opportunity came. The 
alhed powers defeated and decimated the armies of the 
French Emperor, and forced him to capitulate in his 
own capital. On the 3d of March, 18 14, they entered 
Paris. On the eleventh of May Napoleon abdicated, 
and was sent an exile to Elba. 

England was at peace with all Europe. Her con- 
quering annies and fleets would be idle for an indefinite 
period; yet, it would be premature to disband the foniier 
or to dismantle the latter. Naturally, attention turned 
to the favorable policy of employing these vast and ready 
resources for the chastisement and himiiliation of her 
American enemies, as a fit closing of the war and pun- 
ishment for their rebellious defiance. Under orders, the 
troops in France and Spain were marched to Bordeaux 
and placed in a camp of concentration, from which they 
were debarked in fleets down the river Garonne, and 
across the Atlantic to their destinations in America. 
An English officer with these troops expressed the sen- 
timent of the soldiers and seamen, and of the average 
citizen of England at' this time, in this language: "It 
was the general opinion that a large proportion of the 
Peninsular amiy would be transported to the other side 



The Battle of New Orleans 7 

of the Atlantic, that the war would there be carried on 
with vigor, and that no terms of accommodation would 
be listened to, except such as a British general should 
dictate in the Republican Senate." 

Overtures for the negotiation of a treaty of peace 
had been interchanged between the two nations at war 
as early as January. By April the American Commis- 
sioners were in Europe, though the arrival of the English 
Commissioners at Ghent for final deliberations was delayed 
until August. Meanwhile, several thousands of these 
Peninsular troops were transported to reinforce the 
army in Canada. On the sixteenth of August a small 
fleet of British vessels in Chesapeake Bay was reinforced 
by thirty sail under the command of Admirals Cochrane 
and Mai combe, one half of which were ships of war. A 
large part of this flotilla moved up the Potomac 
and disembarked about six thousand men, under com- 
mand of General Ross. The battle of Bladen.sburg was 
fought on the twenty-fourth, followed immediately by 
the capture of Washington and the buming of the Gov- 
ernment buildings there. A few days after, the com- 
bined naval and military British forces were defeated 
in an attack on Baltimore, General Ross, commander- 
in-chief, being among the slain. About the same date, 
Commodore McDonough won a great and crushing victory 



8 The Battle of New Orleans 

over the English fleet on Lake Champlain, while the 
British amiy of fourteen thousand men, under Sir George 
Prevost, was signally defeated by the Americans, less 
than seven thousand in nvimber, at Plattsburg, on the 
border of New York. 

Such was the military situation in the first month 
of autmnn, 1814. Seemingly, the British plenipoten- 
tiaries had a motive in reserve for delaying the negotia- 
tions for peace. England yet looked upon the United 
States as her wayward prodigal, and conjured many 
grievances against the young nation that had rebuked 
her cruel insolence and pride in two wars. She nursed 
a spirit of imperious and bitter revenge. A London 
organ, recently before, had said: "In diplomatic circles it 
is nmiored that our military and naval commanders in 
America have no power to conclude any armistice or 
suspension of anns. Terms will be offered to the Ameri- 
can Government at the point of the bayonet. America 
will be left in a much worse situation as a commercial 
and naval power than she was at the commencement 
of the war." 

The reverses to the British arms on Lake Champlain, 
at Plattsburg, and at Baltimore, virtually ended hos- 
tilities in the Northern States for the remaining period 
of the war. Winter approaching, all belligerent forces 



The Battle of New Orleans 9 

that could be marshaled would be transfen-ed to the 
waters of the Gulf for operations on the coast there. The 
malice and wanton barbarity of the English in burning 
the national buildings and property at Washington, in 
the destruction and loot of houses, private and pubHc, 
on the shores of the Chesapeake and Atlantic, and in 
repeated military outrages unjustified by the laws of 
civilized warfare, had fully aroused the Government 
and the citizenship to the adoption of adequate measures 
of defense for the Northern and Eastern States. It was 
too late, however, to altogether repair the injuries done 
to the army of the Southwest by the tardiness and default 
of the head of the War Department, which, as General 
Jackson said in an official report, threatened defeat and 
disaster to his command at New Orleans. Indignant 
public sentiment laid the blame of the capture of Wash- 
ington, and of the humiliating disasters there, to the 
same negligence and default of this official, which led 
to his resignation soon after. 

General Jackson Assumes Command of the Seventh 
Military District of the Southwest. 

General Andrew Jackson had, in July, 18 14, been 
appointed a major-general in the United States army, 
and assigned the command of the Southern department. 



lo The Battle of New Orleans 

with headquarters at Mobile. His daring and successful 
campaigns against the Indian allies of the British the 
year previous had won for him the confidence of the 
Government and of the people, and distinguished him 
as the man fitted for the emergency. At the beginning 
of the war British emissaries busily sought to enlist, 
aiTn, and equip all the Indians of the Southern tribes 
whom they could disaffect, as their allies, and to incite 
them to a war of massacre, pillage, and destruction against 
the white settlers, as they did with the savage tribes 
north of the Ohio River. In this they were successfully 
aided by Tecumseh, the Shawanee chief, and his brother, 
the Prophet. These were sons of a Creek mother and 
a vShawanee brave. By relationship, and by the rude 
eloquence of the fomier and the mystic arts and incan- 
tations of the latter, they brought into confederacy with 
Northern tribes — which they had organized as allies of the 
English in a last hope of destroying American power 
in the West — abiiost the entire Creek nation. These 
savages, though at peace under treaty and largely sup- 
ported by the fostering aid of our Government, began 
hostilities after their usual methods of indiscriminate 
massacre and marauding destruction, regardless of age 
or sex or condition, against the exposed settlers. The 
latter sought refuge as they could in the rude stockade 



The Battle of New Orleans ii 

stations, but feebly garrisoned. At Fort Mims, on the 
Alabama River, nearly three hundred old men and women 
and children, with a small garrison of soldiers, were cap- 
tured in a surprise attack by a large body of warriors, 
and all massacred in cold blood. This atrocious outbreak 
aroused the country, and led to speedy action for defense 
and terrible chastisement for the guilty pei-petrators. 
The British officers offered rewards for scalps brought 
in, as under Proctor in the Northwest, and many scalps 
of men and women murdered were exchanged for this 
horrible blood-money. 

In October, 1813, General Jackson led twenty-five 
hundred Tennessee militia, who had been speedily called 
out, into the Creek country in Alabama. A corps of one 
thousand men from Georgia, and another of several hun- 
dred from the territory of Mississippi, invaded the same 
from different directions. Sanguinary battles with the 
savages were fought by Jackson's command at Tallase- 
hatche, Talladega, Hillabee, Autosse, Emuckfau, Toho- 
peka, and other places, with signal success to the American 
arms in every instance. The villages and towns of the 
enemy were burned, their fields and gardens laid waste, 
and the survivors driven to the woods and swamps. Not 
less than five thousand of the great Ocmulgee nation 
perished in this war, either in battle or from the ruinous 



12 The Battle of New Orleans 

results of their treachery after. Nearly one thousand of 
the border settlers were sacrificed, one half of whom 
were women and children or other non-combatants, the 
victims of the malignant designs and arts of British 
emissaries. The chief of the Creeks sued for peace, and 
tenns were negotiated by General Jackson on the 14th 
of August, 18 14. 

From his headquarters at Mobile, in September, 18 14, 
General Jackson, with sleepless vigilance, was anticipa- 
ting and watching the movements of the British upon the 
Gulf coast, and marshaling his forces to resist any attack. 
There had been reported to him the arrival of a squadron 
of nine English ships in the harbor of Pensacola. Spain 
was at peace with our country, and it was due that the 
Spanish commandant of Florida, yet a province of Spain, 
should observe a strict neutrality pending hostilities. 
Instead of this comity of good faith and friendship, the 
Spanish officials had pemiitted this territory to become 
a refuge for the hostile Indians. Here they could safely 
treat with the British agents, from whom they received 
the implements of war, supplies of food and clothing, 
and the pay and emoluments incident to their services 
as allies in war. In violation of the obligations of neu- 
trality, the Spanish officials not only tolerated this tres- 
pass on the territory of Florida, but, truckling to the 



The Battle of New Orleans 13 

formidable power and prestige of the great English nation, 
they dared openly to insult our own Govemment by 
giving aid and encouragement to our enemy in their very 
capital. 

The most important and accessible point in Spanish 
Florida was Pensacola. Here the Governor, Gonzalez 
Maurequez, held court and dispensed authority over 
the province. The pride of the Spaniards in the old 
country and in Florida and Louisiana was deeply wounded 
over the simimary sale of the territory of Louisiana by 
Napoleon to the United States in 1803; recalling the 
compulsory cession of the same to France by Spain in 
1800. Naturally they resented with spirit what they 
deemed an indignity to the honor and sovereignty of 
their nation. The Spanish minister at Washington entered 
a solemn protest against the transaction; questions of 
boundaries soon after became a continuing cause of irri- 
tating dispute. The Dons contended that all east of the 
Mississippi River was Florida territory and subject to 
their jurisdiction. A military demonstration by General 
Wilkinson, then in command of the army of the South- 
west, was ordered from Washington, opposition awed 
into silence, and the transfer made. In brief time after 
the boundaries of Florida were fixed on the thirty-first 
degree of north latitude, and east of a line near to the 



14 The Battle of New Orleans 

present boundary between Louisiana and Mississippi. 
Previously Mobile was the seat of government for Florida, 
but American aggression made the removal of the Gov- 
ernment to Pensacola compiilsory, and gave an additional 
cause of grievance to otir sensitive neighbors. Under 
British auspices and promises of protection, the Governor 
displayed his resentment. 

To confimi the report that came to him at Mobile 
of the arrival of an English squadron in Pensacola Bay, 
and of treacherous aid and comfort being given by the 
Spanish Governor, Jackson sent as spies some friendly 
Indians to the scene of operations, with instruction's 
to furtively observe all that could be seen and known, 
and report to him the infoniiation. It was confinned 
that the ships were in the harbor, and that a camp of 
English soldiers was in the town; that a considerable 
body of Indian recruits had been amied and were being 
drilled, and that runners had been dispatched to the 
country to invite and bring others to the coast to join 
them as comrades in amis. A few days after, a friendly 
courier brought news that several hundred marines had 
landed from the ships, that Colonel Nichols in command 
and his stafi" were guests of Governor Maurequez, and 
that the British flag was floating with the flag of vSpain 
over one of the Spanish forts. 



The Battle of New Orleans 15 

An order issvied about this time by Colonel Nichols 
to his troops, followed by a proclamation to the people of 
Louisiana and Kentucky, revealed in visible outlines some- 
thing of the pvirposes and plans of the menacing arma- 
ments. He advised his command that the troops would 
probably soon be called upon to endure long and tedious 
marches through forests and swamps in an enemy's 
country, and exhorted them to conciliate their Indian 
allies and "never to give them just cause of offense." 
He addressed the most inflammatory appeals to the 
national pride and prejudices of the French people of 
Louisiana, and to supposed discontented citizens of Ken- 
tucky, whose grievances had grown out of their neglect 
by the National Government or been engendered by the 
arts of designing politicians and adventurers. 

Battle at Mobile Bay — the British Repulsed. 

General Jackson strongly suspected that Louisiana 
would be invaded, and that New Orleans was designed 
to be the main and final point of attack. Yet he was 
led to believe that the British would attempt the capture 
of Mobile first, for strategic reasons. Early in September 
he reinforced the garrison of Fort Bowyer, situated thirty 
miles south of Mobile. This fortification, mounting twenty 
cannon, commanded the entrance to the harbor. It was 



1 6 The Battle of New Orleans 

garrisoned by one hundred and thirty men, under the 
command of Major WilHam Lawrence. On the fifteenth 
of September the attack was made by a sqtiadron of 
four ships of war, assisted by a land force of seven hun- 
dred marines and Indians. Though the enemy mounted 
ninety-two pieces of artillery, in the assault made they 
were defeated and driven off to sea again, with a loss of 
two hundred killed and wounded, the flagship of the 
commander sent to the bottom, and the remaining ships 
seriously damaged. 

Assault and Capture of Pensacola, the Spanish 
Capital of Florida — The British Driven 
TO Sea. 

Incensed at the open and continued violations of 
neutrality by the Spanish Governor, who had permitted 
Pensacola to be made a recruiting camp for the arming 
and drilling of their Indian allies by the British, General 
Jackson determined to march his army against this seat 
of government, and to enforce the observance of neu- 
trality on the part of the Spanish commandant at the 
point of the bayonet if need be. He had removed his 
headquarters to Fort Montgomery, where by the first 
of November his command consisted of one thousand 
regular troops and two thousand militia, mainly from 



The Battle of New Orleans 17 

Tennessee and Mississippi— in all, about three thousand 
men. With these he set out for Pensacola, and on the 
evening of the sixth of November encamped within two 
miles of the town. He sent in Major Peire, bearing a 
flag of truce to the Governor, with a message that Pen- 
sacola must no longer be a refuge and camp for the enemies 
of the United States, and that the town must be sur- 
rendered, together with the forts. The messenger was 
fired on and driven back from Fort St. Michael, over 
which the British flag had been floating jointly with 
the flag of Spain. The firing was done by British troops 
harbored within. Governor Maurequez disavowed knowl- 
edge of the outrage, but refused to surrender his author- 
ity. The next morning the intrepid Jackson entered 
the town and carried by storm its defenses, the British 
retreating to their ships and putting off to sea. Fort 
Barrancas was blown up by the enemy, to prevent the 
Americans from turning its guns upon the escaping British 
vessels. The Spanish commandant made profuse apolo- 
gies, and pledged that he would in future observe a strict 
neutrality. 

Jackson, fearing another attempt to capture Mobile 
by the retiring fleet, withdrew from Pensacola and 
marched for the former place, arriving there on the 
eleventh of November. At Mobile, messengers from those 



1 8 The Battle of New Orleans 

in highest authority at New Orleans met him, urging 
that he hasten there with his anny and at once begin 
measures for the defense of that city. Information had 
been received by W. C. Claiborne, then Governor of Louis- 
iana, from a highly credited source — most unexpected, 
but most fortunate and welcome — that the vast British 
armament of ships and men rendezvousing in the West 
Indies was about ready to sail, and that New Orleans 
was assuredly the objective point of the expedition. 

Lafitte, the Pirate of the Gulf, and his Sea-rovers, 
Loyal to the American Cause. 

The informant was the celebrated Captain Jean 
Lafitte, the leader of the reputed pirates of the Gtilf, 
who had been outlawed by an edict of our Government. 
The circumstances were so romantic, and displayed such 
a patriotic love for and loyalty to our country, that they 
are worthy of brief mention. As Byron wrote, he 

Left a corsair's name to other times. 

Linked with one virtue and a thousand crimes. 

But this does injustice to these marauders of the sea, 
who put in a plea of extenuation. The disparity of their 
virtues and their crimes is overwrought in the use of 
poetic license. Before the period of the conquest of 



The Battle of New Orleans 



19 



Guadeloupe by the English, the French Government in 
force on that island had granted permits to numerous 
privateersmen to prey upon the commerce of the enemy, 
as our own Government had done in two wars. Now 
they could no longer enter the ports of that or of any 
other of the West India islands, with their prizes and 
cargoes. Lafitte and his daring sea-rovers made of the 
Bay of Barataria, on the Gulf coast sixty miles south 
of New Orleans, a place of rendezvous and headquarters 
for their naval and commercial adventures. From this 
point they had ready and almost unobserved communi- 
cation by navigable bayous with New Orleans and the 
marts beyond. They formed a sequestered colony on the 
shores of Barataria, and among the bold followers of 
Lafitte there were nearly one hundred men skilled in 
navigation, expert in the use of artillery, and familiar 
with every bay and inlet within one hundred miles of 
the Crescent City. Their services, if attainable, might 
be made invaluable in the invasion and investment of 
New Orleans contemplated by the British, who through 
their spies kept well informed of the conditions of the 
environment of the city. The time seemed opportune 
to win them over. If not pirates under our laws, they 
were smugglers who found it necessary to market the 
rich cargoes they captured and brought in as privateers- 



20 The Battle of New Orleans 

men. Barred out by other nations, New Orleans was 
almost the lone market for their wares and for their 
distribution inland. Many merchants and traders favored 
this traffic, and had grown rich in doing so, despite the 
severity of our revenue laws against smuggling and the 
protests of other nations with whom we were friendly. 
One of the Lafitte brothers and other leaders of the 
outlawed community were under arrest and held for 
trial in the Federal Court at New Orleans at this time. 
From Pensacola, Colonel Nichols sent Captains Lockyer, 
of the navy, and Williams, of the anny, as emissaries 
to offer to the Baratarian outlaws the most enticing terms 
and the most liberal rewards, provided they would enlist 
in the service of the British in their invasion of Louisiana. 
Lafitte received them cautiously, but courteously. He 
listened to their overtures, and feigned deep interest 
in their mission. Having fully gained their confidence, 
they delivered to him sealed packages from Colonel 
Nichols himself, offering thirty thousand dollars in hand, 
high commissions in the English service for the officers, 
and liberal pay for the men, on condition that the Bara- 
tarians would ally themselves with the British forces. 
After the reading of these documents, the emissaries 
began to enlarge on the subject, insisting on the great 
advantages to restilt on enlisting in the service of his 



The Battle of New Orleans 21 

Britannic Majesty, and the opportunity afforded of acquir- 
mg fame and fortune. They were imprudent enough 
to disclose to Lafitte the purpose and plans of the great 
English flotilla in the waters of the Gulf, now ready to 
enter upon their execution. The army of invasion, sup- 
ported by the navy of England, would be invincible, 
and all lower Louisiana would soon be in the possession 
of the British. They would then penetrate the upper 
country, and act in concert with the forces in Canada. 
On plausible pretexts the emissaries were delayed for a 
day or two, and then returned to their ship lying at anchor 
outside the pass into the harbor. Lafitte lost little time 
in visiting New Orleans and laying before Governor 
Claiborne the letters of Colonel Nichols and the sensa- 
tional infoi-mation he had received from the British 
envoys. 

It was this intelligence which was borne in haste 
to General Jackson at Mobile, by the couriers mentioned 
previously. The Lafittes promptly tendered the services 
of themselves, their officers, and their men, in a body 
to the American arniy, and pledged to do all in their 
power, by sea and land, to defeat and repel the invading 
enemy, on condition that the Government would accept 
their enlistment, pardon them of all offenses, and remove 
from over them the ban of outlawry. This was all finally 



22 The Battle of New Orleans 

done, and no recruits of Jackson's amiy rendered more 
gallant and effective service, for their numbers, in the 
stirring campaign that followed. They outclassed the 
English gunners in artillery practice, and showed them- 
selves to be veterans as marines or soldiers. 

On receipt of this infonnation of Lafitte, confirmed 
from other secret and reliable sources, the citizens were 
aroused. A mass-meeting was held in New Orleans 
and a Committee of Safety appointed, composed of 
Edward Livingston, Pierre Fouchet, De la Croix, Ben- 
jamin Morgan, Dominique Bouligny, J. A. Destrahan, 
John Blanque, and Augustine Macarte, who acted in con- 
cert with Governor Claiborne, and with the Legislature 
called into session. 

Jackson Arrives in New Orleans. 

General Jackson left Mobile on the twenty-first of 
November and arrived with his little amiy at New 
Orleans on the second of December, and established 
headquarters at 984 (now 406) Royal Street. He found 
the city well-nigh defenseless, while petty factions divided 
the councils of leaders and people, especially rife among 
the members of the Legislature. There was, incident 
to recent changes of sovereignties and conditions of 
nationalities, serious disaffection on the part of a most 



The Battle of Neio Orleans 23 

respectable element of the population of Louisiana and 
Florida toward the American Government. The 
French and Spaniards, who mainly composed the popu- 
lation, intensely loved their native countries with a patri- 
otic pride. They knew allegiance to no other, until a 
few years before, by the arbitrary edicts of Napoleon, 
all of Louisiana was sold and transferred to the United 
States. Other causes of irritation added to the bitter- 
ness of resentment felt by the old Spanish element. 
Spain tenaciously insisted on enforcing her claims of 
sovereignty to all territory from the east bank of the 
Mississippi to the Perdido River, on the east line of Ala- 
bama. But the American settlers within the same became 
turbulent, and in October, 18 10, these bold bordemien 
organized a filibustering force of some strength, captured 
and took possession of Baton Rouge, killing Commandant 
Grandpre, who yet asserted there the authority of Spain. 
When Congress met, in December, 18 10, an act was 
passed in secret session authorizing the President to 
take military possession of the disputed coast country 
in certain contingencies. Under orders from Washing- 
ton, General Wilkinson, with a force of six hundred regu- 
lars, marched against Mobile, took possession of the 
Spanish fort, Charlotte, and caused the garrison to with- 
draw to Pensacola. 



24 The Battle of New Orleans 

This precipitate action — the British envoy protesting 
against such informal occupation — was justified at home 
on the plea of strong grounds of suspicion that England 
herself might suddenly assert sovereignty over the same 
territory under secret treaty with Spain. Amid these 
rude and revolutionary proceedings, all within a decade 
of years, necessarily there followed a tumult of differing 
sentiment and contentions among the Spanish, French, 
and American people of the section. Fortunately the 
French element were of a nativity whose country had 
been for generations the inveterate enemy of the Eng- 
lish, our common foe. If there were any who felt resent- 
ment before over the enforced change of allegiance from 
beloved France to the stranger sovereignty, when the 
crisis of campaign and battle came none were more gallant 
and brave in meeting the invading enemy. 

On the ninth of December the great English flotilla 
appeared off Chandeleur Islands, and came to anchor 
near to Ship Island, the shallowness of the water not 
permitting the nearer approach to the main shore of 
vessels so large. The British authorities yet believed 
that the destination of this fleet was unknown to the 
Americans ashore; but in this they were mistaken, as they 
afterward admitted. The inadequacy of men and means 
and measures to properly meet and repel such an invad- 



Tkt Battle of New Orleans 25 

ing force, as mentioned before, was mainly due to the 
tardy negligence of the department at Washington. The 
sleepless vigilance and untiring energy of General Jack- 
son was in marked contrast to this, not only within his 
own military jurisdiction, but in the whole region around. / 

His trusty spies, pale and dusky, were everywhere, and ^ 

little escaped his attention. The situation was now 
critical in the extreme. Fortunately, the unbounded 
confidence all had in their military chief inspired hope 
and infused energy among the people. He had never 
been defeated in battle. If any one could wrest victory 
now out of the inauspicious and chaotic conditions 
that threatened disaster, they believed it to be General 
Jackson. 

Marvelous was the change wrought by his timely 
appearance on the theater of active operations. The 
partial attempts to adopt measures of defense were of 
little avail. The joint committee of the Legislature to 
act in concert with Governor Claiborne, Commodore 
Patterson, and the military commandant, had done 
but little as yet. There was wanting the concentration 
of power always needed in military operations. Latour, 
in his "Memoirs of the War of 18 14- 15," graphically 
describes the condition of affairs as he saw and knew 
them to exist: 



26 The Battle of New Orleans 

Confidence was wanting in the civil and military authori- 
ties, and a feeling of distmst and gloomy apprehension per- 
vaded the minds of the citizens. Petty disputes on account 
of two committees of defense, unfortunately countenanced 
by the presence and influence of several public officials, had 
driven the people to despondency. They complained, not 
without cause, that the Legislature wasted time, and con- 
sumed the money of the State, in idle discussions, when both 
time and money should have been devoted to measures of 
defense. The banks had suspended payment of their notes, 
and credit was gone. The moneyed men had drawn in their 
funds, and loaned their money at the ruinous rates of three 
or four per cent per month. The situation seemed desperate; 
in case of attack, none could hope to be saved only by miracle, 
or by the wisdom and genius of a great commander. 

After his habit of giving his personal attention to every 
detail. General Jackson, on his amval, visited Fort St. 
Philip, ordered the wooden ban"acks removed, and had 
mounted additional heavy artillery. He caused two 
more batteries to be constructed, one on the opposite 
bank of the Mississippi, and the other half a mile above, 
with twenty-four pounders in position, thus fully guard- 
ing the approach by the mouth of the river. He then 
proceeded to Chef Menteur, as far as Bayou Sauvage, 
and ordered a battery erected at that point. He con- 
tinued to fortify or obstruct the larger bayous whose 
waters gave convenient access to the city between the 
Mississippi and the Gulf. 



The Battle of New Orleans 27 

As early as July before, the Secretary of War, in view 
of the formidable armaments of England, had made 
requisition of the several States for ninety-three thousand 
five hundred men for general defensive purposes, under 
a law of Congress enacted the previous April. The quota 
of Kentucky was fifty-five hundred infantry; of Ten- 
nessee, twenty-five hundred infantry; of Mississippi ter- 
ritory, five hundred infantry, and of Louisiana, one 
thousand infantry. That portion of the quota of Ken- 
tucky destined for New Orleans, twenty-two hundred 
men, and a portion of the quota of Tennessee, embarked 
upon fiatboats to float fifteen htmdred miles down the 
Ohio and Mississippi waters, had not arrived on the 
tenth of December. Through the energetic efforts of the 
Governor, aided by Major Edward Livingston and the 
Committee of Safety, the quota of Louisiana was made up. 
With these. General Coffee's Tennesseans, Major Hinds' 
Mississippians, and one thousand regular troops, there 
were less than three thousand men for defensive opera- 
tions yet available. 

Battle of the Gunboats with the Fleet of Barges. 

An event was soon to happen which seemed for the 
time an irreparable disaster to the American cause. Com- 
modore Daniel T. Patterson, in command of the Amer- 



28 The Battle of New Orleans 

ican naval forces, on learning of the approach of the 
British fleet, sent Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, 
with five gunboats, one tender, and a dispatch boat 
toward the passes out to Ship Island, to watch the move- 
ments of the British vessels. This little flotilla, barely 
enough for scout duty at sea, was the extent of our naval 
forces in the Gulf waters near. The orders were to fall 
back, if necessary, from near Cat Island to the Rigolets; 
and there, if hard pressed, to sink or be sunk by the 
enemy. Moving in waters too shallow for the large 
English ships to pvirsue, until the thirteenth. Lieuten- 
ant Jones sailed for Bay St. Louis. Sighting a large 
nvimber of the enemy's barges steering for Pass Christian, 
he headed for the Rigolets. But the wind having died 
away and an adverse current set in, the little fleet could 
get no farther than the channel inside of Melheureux 
Island, being there partially grounded. Early on the 
morning of the fourteenth, a flotilla of barges formed 
in line was discovered coming from the direction of the 
enemy's ships, evidently to overtake and attack the 
becalmed gunboats. The two tenders, lying beyond the 
aid of the latter, were captured after a spirited resistance. 
The guns of these were now turned upon Lieutenant 
Jones' gunboats in a combined attack of the fleet of 
barges, forty-five in number, and a supporting squad of 



The Battle of New Orleans 29 

marines. The total equipment was twelve hundred men 
and forty-five pieces of artillery. The American 
defensive forces were seven small gunboats, manned by 
thirty guns and one hundred and eighty men. The 
enemy's oarsmen advanced their entire fleet in line of bat- 
tle until the fire from the gunboats caused severe losses 
and some confusion in the movements of the barges. 
They then separated in three divisions and renewed the 
attack. The battle became general, and was contested 
fiercely for nearly two hours, when the gunboats, over- 
powered by numbers, were forced to surrender, losing 
six men killed and thirty-five wounded, among the latter 
Lieutenants Jones, Speddin, and McKeever, each in com- 
mand of a boat. Several barges of the enemy were sunk, 
while their losses in killed and wounded were estimated 
at two to three hundred. Among the wounded were 
Captain Lockyer, in command, and other officers. 

The preparations for defense on shore were now pushed 
forward with redoubled energy. General Jackson gave 
unremitting attention to the fortifying of all points which 
seemed available for the approach of the enemy; it was 
impossible to know at what point he might choose to 
make his first appearance on land. Captain Newman, 
in command of Fort Petit Coquille, at the Rigolets, next 
to Lake Pontchartrain, was reinforced, and the order 



30 The Battle of New Orleans 

given to defend the post to the last extremity. If com- 
pelled to abandon it, he was instructed to fall back on 
Chef Menteur. Swift messengers were sent to Generals 
Carroll and Thomas to make all speed possible with the 
Tennessee and Kentucky troops on their way to New 
Orleans. Also, a courier was dispatched to General Win- 
chester, commanding at Mobile, warning of the possible 
danger of another attack on that place, since the loss of 
^i the gtmboats. Major Lacoste, with the dragoons of Feli- 

ciana and his militia battalion of colored men, was directed, 
with two pieces of artillery, to take post at the confluence 
of Bayous Sauvage and Chef Menteur, throw up a redoubt, 
and guard the road. Major Plauche was sent with his 
battalion to Bayou St. John, north of the city. Major 
Hughes being in command of Fort St. John. Captain 
Jugeant was instructed to enlist and fonn into companies 
all the Choctaw Indians he could collect, a mission that 
proved nearly barren of results. The Baratarians, mus- 
tered into ranks and drilled for important services under 
their own officers, Captains Dominique You, Beluche, 
Sougis, Lagand, and Golson, were divided out to the forts 
named, and to other places where expert gunners were 
most needed. 

On the eighteenth of December a grand review of the 
Louisiana troops was held by Jackson in front of the 



The Battle of N^eio Orleans 31 

old Cathedral, now Jackson Square. The day was mem- 
orable by many incidents, not all in hannony with the 
piirposes and plans of the civil and military leaders of 
defense. The entire population of the city and vicinity 
were present to witness the novel scenes, men and women 
vying with each other in applauding and enthusing the 
martial ardor of the soldiers on parade. Such an army, 
hastily improvised in a few brief days from city, country, 
and towns, made up of a composite of divergent race 
elements, as was that of the Louisiana contingent with 
the command of Jackson at New Orleans, was perhaps 
never paralleled in the history of warfare before. Major 
Plauche's battalion of uniformed companies was made 
up mainly of French and Spanish Creoles, with some of 
American blood, enlisted from the city; and from the 
same source came Captain Beale's Rifle Company, mostly 
American residents. The Louisiana militia, under Gen- 
eral Morgan, were of the best element of the country 
parishes, of much the same race-types as Plauche's men, 
of newer material, and without uniforms. Then came 
the battalion of Louisiana free men of color, nearly three 
hundred strong, led by Major Lacoste, and another bat- ^ 
talion of men of color, two hundred and fifty in niunber, 
commanded by Major Daquin, recruited from the refu- 
gees in New Orleans from St. Domingo, who had taken 



32 The Battle of New Orleans 

part in the bloody strifes in that island, and who bore 
like traditional hatred to the English, with all who spoke 
the French tongue. Add to the above a small detachment 
of Choctaw Indians; and lastly, the loyal pirates of 
Lafitte, who were patriotic enough to scorn the gold of 
England, and brave enough to offer their services and 
their lives, if need be, to the cause of our country; and 
together, these give us a picture of the men under review, 
whom Jackson was to lead to battle in a few days against 
the best- trained troops of Europe. Though of new 
material, and suddenly called into service, this provincial 
contingent of twelve hundred men, animated with the 
spirit of battle against an invading foe, proved them- 
selves, when ably officered, the equals of the best troops 
in the field. 

Jackson Declares Martial Law. 

On the sixteenth, two days before the review. General 
Jackson issued from his headquarters an order declaring 
"the city and environs of New Orleans under martial 
law." This imperious edict was resorted to in the firm 
belief that only the exercise of supreme military authority 
could awe into silence all opposition to defensive opera- 
tions. Every person entering the city was required to 



The Battle of New Orleans 33 

report himself to headquarters, and any one departing 
from it must procure a pass. The street lamps were 
extinguished at nine o'clock at night, and every one found 
passing after that hour was subject to arrest. All persons 
capable of bearing arms who did not volunteer were 
pressed into the military or naval service. Rvimors were 
rife that British spies were secretly prowling in the city, 
and coming into the American camp. Reports of dis- 
loyal utterances and suspicious proceedings on the part 
of certain citizens came repeatedly to the ears of the 
commander-in-chief. More serious yet, he was aroused 
to fierce anger by personal and direct intelligence that 
certain leading and influential members of the Legisla- 
ture favored a foiTnal capitulation and sun-ender of 
Louisiana to the enemy, by that body, in the event 
of a formidable invasion, for the greater security of their 
persons and property. These persons had circulated a 
story that Jackson would burn the city and all valuable 
property in reach rather than let it fall into the hands 
of the British. 

Determined that disloyalty should find no foothold 
to mar his military plans, or to disafTect the soldiery or 
citizens. General Jackson, on the day previous to his 
declaration of martial law, issued the following spirited 
order : 



34 TJie Battle of Neio Orleans 

To THE Citizens of New Orleans. 

The Major-general commanding, has, with astonishment 
and regret, learned that great consternation and alarm per- 
vade your city. It is true the enemy is on our coast and 
threatens to invade our territory; but it is equally true that, 
with union, energy, and the approbation of Heaven, we will 
beat him at every point his temerity may induce him to set 
foot on our soil. The General, with still greater astonish- 
ment, has heard that British emissaries have been permitted 
to propagate seditious reports among you, that the threatened 
invasion is with a view to restore the country to Spain, from 
the supposition that some of you would be willing to return 
to your ancient government. Believe not such incredible 
tales; your Government is at peace with Spain. It is the 
vital enemy of your country, — the common enemy of man- 
kind, — the highway robber of the world, that threatens you. 
He has sent his hirelings among you with this false report, 
to put you off your guard, that you may fall an easy prey. 
Then look to your liberties, your property, the chastity of 
your wives and daughters. Take a retrospect of the con- 
duct of the British army at Hampton, and other places where 
it entered our country, and every bosom which glows with 
patriotism and virtue, will be inspired with indignation, and 
pant for the arrival of the hour when we shall meet and revenge 
these outrages against the laws of civilization and humanity. 

The General calls upon the inhabitants of the city to trace 
this unfounded report to its source, and bring the propagator 
to condign punishment. The rules and articles of war annex 
the punishment of death to any person holding secret cor- 



The Battle of New Orleans 35 

respondence with the enemy, creating false alarm, or supply- 
ing him with provision. The General announces his deter- 
mination rigidly to execute the martial law in all cases which 
may come within his province. 

By command. Thomas L. Butler, 

Aid-de-camp. 

Bayou Bienvenue and the British Spies of the 
Fishermen's Village. 

Bayou Bienvenue, formerly called St. Frances River, 
drains all the waters of a swamp-basin, of triangular 
form and about eighty square miles in surface, bounded 
on the west by New Orleans, on the northwest by Chef 
Menteur, and on the east by Lake Borgne, into which 
it empties. It receives the waters of several other bayous 
from the surrounding cypress swamps and prairies. It 
is navigable for vessels of one hundred tons burden as 
far as the junction with old Piernas Canal, twelve miles 
from its mouth. It is about one htmdred and twenty 
yards in width, and has from six to nine feet of water at 
the bar, according to the flow of the tides. Its principal 
branch is Bayou Mazant, which runs to the southwest 
and receives the waters of the canals of the old plantations 
of Villere, Lacoste, and Laronde, on and near which the 
British army encamped, about eight miles below New 



36 The Battle of New Orleans 

Orleans. The banks of these bayous, which drain the 
swamp lands on either side of the Mississippi, are visually 
about twelve feet below the banks of the river, which 
have been elevated by the deposit of sediment from over- 
flows for centuries. These slopes, from the banks back 
to the swamps, usually ten to eighteen hundred yards, 
drain oft" the waters and form the tillable lands of the 
sugar and cotton planters. They are protected from 
ovei"flows by levees thrown up on the banks of the river. 
These plantation lands formed the only ground in this 
country for the encampment of a large army, or avail- 
able for a march on New Orleans. On nearly all the 
large sugar plantations canals were cut from the bank 
of the river running back to the swamp, to furnish at 
high tides water-power for mills which did the grinding 
or sawing for the plantations. 

Bayous Bienvenue and Mazant, as mentioned, formed 
a waterway from Lake Borgne to the rear of the planta- 
tions of Villere, Lacoste, and Laronde, situated but two 
or three hours' easy march to the city, to which there 
was a continuous roadway through the plantation lands 
between the river and the swamps. The enemy was fully 
informed of every point of approach by spies within the 
military lines, and since the capture of the gunboats 
detennined on an attempt to secretly invade the environ- 



The Battle of New Orleans 



37 



ing country, and to assault and capture New Orleans by 
surprise. But one mile from Lake Borgne, on the low 
bank of Bayou Bienvenue, was a village of Spanish 
and Portuguese fishemien and their families. From the 
bayous and adjacent lakes they furnished the city markets 
with fish, and were familiar with every body of water and 
every nook and inlet for many miles around. A number of 
these became notorious as spies in the pay of the British. 
Of this treacherous little colony, the names of Maringuier, 
Old Luiz, Francisco, Graviella, Antonio el Italiano, El 
Campechano, Mannellilo, and Garcia became known as 
connected with this disloyalty. These served the Eng- 
lish as pilots to their barges, as guides to the best 
approaches to New Orleans, and as ready spies within 
and without. The English commander in charge sent 
Captain Peddie, of the army, on the twentieth of Decem- 
ber, as a spy in the disguise of one of these fishermen, 
to inspect and report upon the feasibility of entering 
with the army at the mouth of Bayou Bienvenue, land- 
mg at the plantations above and marching suddenly by 
this route on the city. Old Luiz and two others of the 
fishermen were his guides. He safely and without sus- 
picion penetrated to Villere's plantation, viewed the field 
for encampment there, and noted the easy route of 
approach to the city, without an obstruction in the way. 



38 The Battle of New Orleans 

His report being most favorable, the British ofhcer in 
command decided at once on invasion and attack from 
this direction. 

Five Thousand British Troops enter Bayou Bien- 

VENUE AND LaND NEAR ViLLERE's PLANTATION. 

By Jackson's order, Major Villere, son of General 
Villere, the owner of the plantation, placed a picket of 
twelve men at Fisherman's Village on the twenty-first, 
to watch and report promptly in case the enemy appeared 
there. After midnight, near the morning of the twenty- 
third, five advance barges bearing British troops glided 
noiselessly into Bienvenue from Lake Borgne, capturing 
the picket of twelve men without firing a gun. Soon 
after, the first division of the invading army, twenty-five 
hundred strong, under command of Colonel Thornton, 
appeared in eighty barges, and passed up the bayous to 
Villere 's canal, where a landing was effected by the dawn 
of day. After a brief rest and breakfast, the march of 
two miles was made to Villere 's plantation, arriving 
there at half -past eleven. The troops at once surrounded 
the house of General Villere, and surprised and made 
prisoners a company of the Third Louisiana Militia 
stationed there. Major Villere, after capture, escaped 
through a window at the risk of his life, reached the 



The Battle of New Orleans 39 

river bank and crossed over in a small boat, and hastened 
to New Orleans with the startling news. Colonel Laronde 
also escaped, and reached headquarters in the early 
afternoon; on the day before he had reported the sight- 
ing of several suspicious vessels out upon Lake Borgne, 
seemingly to reconnoiter. 

Jackson had ordered Majors Latour and Tatum, of 
his engineer corps, to reconnoiter in the direction of the 
Laronde and Lacoste plantations, and to carefully exam- 
ine this avenue of approach by the enemy. These officers 
left the city at eleven o'clock, and had reached Laronde 's, 
when they met several persons fleeing toward the city, 
who told them of the arrival of the British at ViUere's, 
and of the capture of the outpost there. It was then 
but half-past one o'clock. The two scouts put spurs 
to their horses, and by two o'clock the General was 
informed of the facts. With that heroic promptness 
and intuition characteristic and ever present with him, 
he exclaimed with fierce emphasis: "By the eternal! the 
enemy shall not sleep upon our soil!" The invading move- 
ment was a complete surprise, and there was not yet a 
defensive work to obstruct the march of the British upon 
the coveted city. Only genius and courage of the highest 
order could have met successfully such an emergency, 
and Jackson alone seemed equal to the occasion. 



40 The Battle of New Orleans 

Jackson Determines to Attack — Bloody Night-battle 
OF THE Twenty-third of December. 

Orders were issued rapidly, as the report of the alarm- 
gun gave notice to all to be ready. The troops were 
stationed within a radius of a few miles of the city, in 
garrisons. Major Plauche was summoned to bring down 
his battalion of uniformed volunteers from Bayou St. 
John, which summons was obeyed in a run all the way. 
Genei-al Coffee, encamped four miles above the city, tuider 
similar order, was at headquarters within one hour. 
Colonel McRae, with the Seventh regulars, Lieutenant 
Spotts, with two pieces of artillery, and Lieutenant Belle- 
vue, with a detachment of marines, were all foiTned on 
the road near Montruil's plantation. Coffee's riflemen 
and Hinds' Mississippi dragoons foniied the advance in 
the order of march. Beale's Orleans Rifles followed 
closely after, and by four o'clock these had taken position 
at Rodrique's Canal. The battalion of men of color, 
under Major Daquin, the Forty-fourth regulars, under 
Captain Baker, and Plauche 's men, were in close support- 
ing distance. 

Commodore Patterson was requested to arm such ves- 
sels lying in the river as were ready, and to drop down 
and take station opposite the enemy. The schooner 



The Battle of New Orleans 



41 



Carolina was put in position; the sloop of war Louisiana 
could not steer in the stream. Governor Claiborne, with 
the First, Second, and Fourth Louisiana Militia, occupied 
a post in the plain of GentiUy, to cover the city on the 
side of Chef Menteur. A picket of five mounted men 
was fired on near the line of Laronde's and Lacoste's 
plantations, and driven in about four o'clock. A negro 
was apprehended, who had been sent by the British with 
printed copies of a proclamation in Spanish and French, 
in terms as follows: " Louisianians ! remain quiet in your 
houses; your slaves shall be preserved to you, and your 
property respected. We make war only against Ameri- 
cans." This was signed by Admiral Cochrane and Gen- 
eral Keene. Other copies were found. 

About nightfall the troops were formed in line of battle, 
the left composed of a part of Coffee's men, Beale's Rifles, 
the Mississippi dragoons, and some other mounted rifle- 
men, in all about seven hundred and thirty men, General 
Coffee in command. Colonel Laronde as guide. Under 
cover of the darkness, they took position back of the plan- 
tation of the latter. The right formed on a perpendicu- 
lar line from the river to the garden of Laronde's plan- 
tation, and on its principal avenue. The artillery occu- 
pied the high road, supported by a detachment of marines. 
On the left of the artillery were stationed the Seventh 



42 The Battle of New Orleans 

and Forty-fourth regtilars, Plauche's and Daquin's bat- 
talions, and a squad of Choctaw Indians, all under the 
command of Colonel Ross. 

The second invading division of the British army, made 
up of the Twenty-first, Forty-fourth, and Ninety-third 
Regiments, with a corjjs of artillery, in all about twenty- 
five htindred men, was disembarked at the terminus of 
Villere Canal at half -past seven o'clock in the evening 
of the twenty-third, just as the roar of the ship's cannon 
annoimced the opening of the night battle. At seven 
o'clock Commodore Patterson had anchored the Carolina 
in the Mississippi, as requested, in front of the British 
camp, and but a good musket-shot away. Such was the 
security felt by the enemy in camp that they stood upon 
the levee and viewed her as a common boat plying the 
river. Within thirty minutes she opened upon the enemy 
a destructive fire which spread consternation and havoc 
throughout their camp. In half an hour more they were 
driven out, with many killed and wounded. About eight 
o'clock the troops on the right, led by Jackson himself, 
began the attack on the enemy's left. The Seventh 
and Forty-fourth regulars became hotly engaged along 
the line, supported by McRae's artillery. Plauche's and 
Daquin's battalions coming up, the fighting became furi- 
ous from the road to Laronde's garden. The British 



The Battle of lYeio Orleans 43 

were forced back within the Hmits of Lacoste's plantation, 
the combatants being often intemiingled and fighting 
hand-to-hand, almost undistinguishable in the darkness 
of night, made denser by the smoke of battle and the 
gathering fog. 

Meanwhile, Coffee's troops, from the rear of Laronde's 
plantation, were moved to the boundary limits of Lacoste 
and Villere. with a view of taking the enemy in the rear. 
Coffee extended his front and ordered his men to move 
forward in silence and to fire without orders, taking aim 
as best they could. They drove the enemy before them, 
and took a second position in front of Lacoste's planta- 
tion. Here was posted the Eighty-fifth Regiment of 
the British army, which was forced back by the first fire 
toward their main camp. Captain Beale's Riflemen 
advanced on the left into the British camp at Villere 's, 
driving the enemy before them and taking some prison- 
ers, but sustained some loss before joining Coffee again. 
Coffee's division finally took a last position in front of the 
old levee, near Laronde's boundary, where it harassed 
the enemy as they fell back, driven by Jackson on the 
right. By ten o'clock the British had fallen back to their 
camp in discomfiture, where they were permitted to lay 
in comparative quiet imtil morning, except their harass- 
ment from the artillery fire of the schooner Carolina. 



44 The Battle of New Orleans 

In the darkness and confusion of combat at dead of night 
hnes were broken and order lost at times, until it was 
difficult to distinguish friends from foes. General Jack- 
son led his troops back to the opening point of the attack 
and rested them there until morning, when he fell back 
over one mile to Rodrique's Canal, the position selected 
for the defense of the city. 

Three hundred and fifty of the Louisiana militia, 
under command of General David Morgan, were stationed 
at English Tt;rn, seven miles below Villere's, and nearly 
fourteen miles from New Orleans. Intelligence of the 
arrival of the British at Villere's, on the twenty-third, 
reached General Morgan's camp at one o'clock in the 
afternoon of the day. Officers and men expressed an 
eagerness to be led against the enemy; but General Mor- 
gan, not having then received orders from Jackson to 
that effect, deemed it prudent to hold them waiting in 
camp. At half -past seven o'clock, when the guns from 
the Carolina were heard bringing on the battle, it was 
found difficult to restrain them longer. Morgan finally, 
at the urgent request of his officers, gave orders to go 
forward, which the troops received with ardor. They 
reached a point near Jumonville's plantation, just below 
Villere's, when a picket guard in advance met a picket 
force of the enemy and fired on it; the fire was returned. 



The Battle of A^ew Orleans 45 

A reconnoiter failing to discover the numbers and position 
of the enemy in his front, Morgan took a position in a 
field until three o'clock in the morning, when he marched 
his men back to camp. The failure of this command 
to join issue in this battle, in concert with the other com- 
mands of Jackson's army, was apparently most unfortu- 
nate. The records do not show what orders, if any, were 
sent from headquarters by Jackson to General Morgan 
in summoning his forces in the afternoon of the day for 
the attack at night. It is barely possible that the Gen- 
eral neglected to dispatch an order to, or to communicate 
with, the commander of so important a body of troops, 
in numbers nearly one fifth of the entire American forces 
engaged, in a critical hour when every available soldier 
was needed on the field of combat. A swift messenger 
sent by Jackson from headquarters at two o'clock, as to 
other outpost commands, could easily have reached Eng- 
lish Turn at five o'clock. General Morgan knew that the 
invading army were in bivouac seven miles above. By 
eight o'clock he could have had his troops in attacking 
distance of the enemy, and in their rear. When Jackson 
and Coffee assaulted the British lines at eight o'clock, 
and drove them back in confusion upon their camp, a 
spirited surprise attack by Morgan's command in the rear, 
any moment before nine o'clock, would probably have 



46 The Battle of New Orleans 

routed the entire British division engaged and forced 
them to lay down their arms or retreat to their boats. 
He did move his command forward, and halt them 
at some distance from the enemy, but it was probably 
too late. The battle was over and the opportunity 
gone. 

An after- incident throws a ray of light upon the criti- 
cism of the day upon the above affair. Honorable 
Magloire Guichard, President of the House of Representa- 
tives, in his testimony before the Committee of Inquiry 
on the military measures employed by Jackson against 
the Legislature, said: 

On the twenty-seventh of December, when I got home, I 
found Colonel Declouet (of Morgan's command), who had 
just crossed the river. Amid the conversation of the evening, 
I expressed my surprise at his not having attacked the Brit- 
ish from the lower side, on the night of the twenty-third ; that 
had he done so with the men under his command, at the same 
time with the troops coming from the city, all would have termi- 
nated on that evening, and the British would have laid down 
their arms. He expressed great sorrow that he had not been 
the master to do so. He declared that this was his intention, 
but that General Morgan refused to comply with his request. 
Afterwards, having resolved to come toward midnight to recon- 
noitre, they had met with a small picket, who fired upon them; 
they returned the fire, and then retired. 



The Battle of New Orleans 47 

The British loss in this initial night-battle is put by 
our authorities at four to five hundred in killed, wounded, 
and prisoners. Their own official reports admit three to 
five hundred. The Americans had twenty-four killed, 
one hundred and fifteen wounded, and seventy-four made 
prisoners. The fall of Colonel Lauderdale, of Mississippi, 
was much lamented. 

So unique in the annals of military experience was this 
fiercely fought night-battle, so startling in its surprise 
of the bold and confident Britons, and so characteristic 
of Jackson's grim humor of war, that it is interesting to 
know the impressions it made upon the minds of the 
enemy. With this view, we quote a vivid description 
from the history of an English officer who was in the 
campaigns against Napoleon, with Ross and Pakenham 
in America, and who was a participant in this battle, 
Captain Robert Gleig. He says: 

About half-past seven at night our attention was drawn to 
a large vessel which seemed to be stealing up the river, oppo- 
site our camp, when her anchor was dropped and her sails 
quietly furled. She was repeatedly hailed, but gave no answer. 
An alarm spread through our bivouac, and all thought of sleep 
was abandoned. Several musket shots were fired at her, when 
we heard a commanding voice cry out: "Give them this for 
the honor of America!" The words were instantly followed 
by the flashes of her guns, and a deadly shower of grape swept 
down numbers in our camp. 



48 The Battle of New Orleans 

Against this dreadful fire we had nothing as yet to oppose. 
We sought shelter under the levee, and listened in painful 
silence to the pattering of shot which fell among our troops, 
and to the shrieks and groans of the wounded who lay near by. 
The night was dark as pitch. Except the flashes of the enemy's 
guns, and the glare of our own deserted fires, not an object 
could be distinguished. In this state we lay helpless for nearly 
an hour, when a straggling fire of musketry, driving in our pick- 
ets, warned us to prepare for a closer and more desperate strife. 
This fire was presently succeeded by a fearful yell, while the 
heavens became illuminated on all sides by a semi-circular 
blaze of musketry. 

Rushing from under the bank, the Eighty-fifth and Ninety- 
fifth Regiments flew to support the pickets; while the Fourth, 
stealing to the rear, formed close column as a reserve. But 
to describe this action is out of the question, for it was such a 
battle as the annals of warfare can hardly parallel. Each 
officer, as he was able to collect twenty or thirty men around 
him, advanced into the midst of the enemy, where they fought 
hand to hand, bayonet to bayonet, and sword to sword, with 
the tumult and ferocity of Homer's combats before the walls of 
Troy. Attacked unexpectedly in the dark, and surrounded 
by enemies before we could arrange to oppose them, no order 
or discipline of war could be preserved. We were mingled 
with the Americans before we could tell whether they were 
friends or foes. The consequence was that more feats of indi- 
vidual gallantry were performed in the course of the conflict 
than many campaigns might have afforded. The combat 
having begun at eight in the evening, and long and obstinately 
contested, continued until three in the morning; but the vie- 



The Battle of Neio Orleans 



49 



tory was decidedly ours, for the Americans retreated in the 
greatest disorder, leaving us in possession of the field. Our 
losses, however, were enormous. Not less than five hundred 
men had fallen, many of whom were our first and best officers. 
The recall being sounded, our troops were soon brought 
together, forming in front of the ground where we had at first 
encamped. Here we remained until the mom, when, to avoid 
the fire of the vessel, we betook ourselves to the levee on the 
bank, and lay down. Here we lay for some hours, worn out 
with fatigue and loss of sleep, and shivering in the cold of a 
frosty morning, not daring to light a fire or cook a meal. When- 
ever an attempt was made, the ship's guns opened on us. Thus 
was our army kept prisoners for an entire day. 

This was not a field victory for either combatant, but 
rather a drawn battle, as each party fell back to the lines 
occupied at the opening. It was a very great victory 
for the Americans in its bearings on the final issues of 
the campaign. The attack of Jackson was to the British 
like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky. It paralyzed 
and checked them on the first day, and at the first place 
of their encampment on shore, and enabled him to adopt 
measures to beat back the invaders in every attempt 
they made for a further advance inland. The enemy 
had found an open way and expected an easy march, 
with a certainty that the Crescent City, by Christmas Day, 
would become an easy prey for their "Loot and Lust," 



50 The Battle of New Orleans 

as Admiral Cochrane is said to have promised. Instead 
of a garden of dehghts, they had walked into a death- 
trap at the gate of entrance. Confidence and prestige 
were shaken in the front of a foe equal in valor and as 
skilled in amis as themselves. The rude reception given 
by Jackson had compelled the amiy of the invaders to 
halt in its first camp, and to re-form, to reinforce, and to 
rehabilitate its plans, before daring another step forward. 
This delay, fatal to the British, probably saved the city. 
On the next morning early (of the twenty-fourth) the 
first division of the British army would have been rein- 
forced by the second division landed on the night of the 
battle, giving five thousand fresh veteran troops in bivouac 
at Villere's, with which to march upon the city. It was 
but seven miles distant, with a broad, level highway 
leading to it. Jackson could have opposed to this army 
not over two thousand men in the open field, where every 
advantage would have been with the enemy. With the 
bravery and discipline the latter showed in the surprise- 
battle at night, they would have made an irresistible 
march to victoiy against the city, had not the invincible 
Jackson paralyzed them with this first blow. It was a 
master-stroke, worthy the genius of a great commander. 
The valor of the English soldiers was rarely, if ever, 
surpassed on a bloody field of contest. There was no 



The Battle of New Or/cans 51 

panic, no rout, no cowering under the murderous fire 
of the ship's guns, or when the blaze of musketr}- 
encircled them in the darkness of the night. Although 
the ranks wei'e broken and little order prevailed, the 
men rallied to the calls of the nearest officers, and 
plunged into the thickest of the strife. Only this vet- 
eran discipline and stubborn British courage saved the 
enemy from rout and worse disaster. Colonel Thorn- 
ton, the bravest and most skillful of the officers of the 
English anny, as he repeatedly proved himself, com- 
manded on this occasion. General Keene had not yet 
come up. 

The American forces engaged were: United States 
regulars. Seventh Regiment, Major Peire, four hundred 
and sixty-five men, and Forty-fourth Regiment, Captain 
Baker, three hvindred and thirty-one men; marines. 
Lieutenant Bellevue, sixty-six; artillery, McRae, twenty- 
two; Major Plauche's battalion, two hundred and eighty- 
seven; Major Daquin's battaHon of St. Domingo men 
of color, two hundred and ten; Choctaws, Captain Jug- 
eant, eighteen; Coffee's Tennessee Brigade, five hundred 
and sixty-three; Orleans Rifles, Captain Beale, sixty- 
two; and Mississippi Dragoons, Major Hinds, one hundred 
and seven; in all, twenty-one hundred and thirty-one 
men. 



52 TJie Battle of New Orleans 

Jackson Entrenches at Rodrique's Old Canal Site. 

As mentioned, Jackson occupied the line of Rod- 
rique's Canal, two miles above the British camp at Vil- 
lere's, and five miles below the city. The space from the 
river here back to the swamp was but seventeen hundred 
yards, making it an admirable line for defense. Early 
on the twenty-fourth every available man was put to 
work throwing up a breastwork on the upper side of the 
canal, while pieces of artillery were planted at command- 
ing points for immediate emergency. Negroes from the 
adjacent plantations were called in to expedite the 
work of building the entrenchment and suitable redoubts, 
as had been done at other works of fortification and defense. 
On the twenty-fifth. General Morgan was ordered to aban- 
don the post at English Turn and to move his command 
of Louisiana miUtia to a position on the right bank of the 
river, at Flood's plantation, opposite Jackson's camp. 

The Ship Carolina Burned With Hot Shot — Artil- 
lery Duel on the Twenty-eighth. 

The enemy detemiined to destroy the ship Carolina, 
as she lay out in the river, from whose deadly broadsides 
by day and by night they had been so terribly harassed 
since the opening of the night battle of the twenty-third. 



The Battle of New Orleans 53 

Having brought up their artillery from their landing-place, 
they erected a battery commanding that part of the 
river, with a fvimace for heating shot. On the twenty- 
seventh, they opened fire in range, and in fifteen minutes 
the schooner was set on fire by the red-hot missiles and 
burned to the water's edge. The fire of the battery was 
next directed against the Louisiana, a larger war-vessel, 
the preservation of which was of great importance. 
Lieutenant Thompson, in command, with the combined 
efforts of one hundred men of his crew, succeeded under 
fii-e of the battery in towing her beyond the range of 
the guns of the enemy. 

On the evening of the twenty-seventh the British 
moved forward in force, drove in the American advance 
lines, and occupied Chalmette's plantation, one mile 
above Laronde's. During the night they began to estab- 
lish several batteries along the river. At dawn of day 
on the twenty-eighth they advanced in columns on the 
road, preceded by several pieces of artillery, some play- 
ing upon the Louisiana and others on the American lines. 
The ship's crew waited until the columns of the enemy 
were well in range, when they opened upon them a 
destructive fire, which silenced their guns. While this 
oblique fire fell upon the flank of the British, the batteries 
on the American line answered them from the front with 



54 The Battle of New Orleans 

much effect. One shot from the Louisiana killed fifteen 
of the enemy's men. Some of his guns were dismounted, 
and he was driven from several of his batteries. In seven 
hours' cannonading the ship fired eight hundred shot. 
The enemy threw into the American ranks many Con- 
greve rockets, evidently misled in the hope that these 
ugly-looking missiles would strike terror to the ranks 
of our troops. These soon learned that they were not 
so dangerous as they appeared. The infantry this day 
did not engage in more than heavy picket skirmishmg, , 
and in checking the demonstrations of the enemy on 
our lines. This movement all along the line was evi- 
dently a feint in force, to draw from Jackson's amiy 
information as to the powers of resistance it might offer 
and to ascertain its most vulnerable point of attack. 
The loss of the British this day was estimated at two 
hundred; that of the Americans much less, as they were 
mainly sheltered from the enemy's fire. There were nine 
killed and eight wounded. 

Defenses on the West Bank of the River. 

Realizing that the enemy might suddenly throw a 
force across the river, and by a flank movement up the 
right bank gain a position opposite the city, from 
which, by shot and shell, he might compel a surrender, 



The Battle of Ne7u Oyleans 55 

Jackson sent Major Latour, chief of his engineer corps, 
to the west side, with orders to select a position most 
suitable for a fortified line in the rear of General Mor- 
gan's camp. Bois-Gervais Canal, three miles below 
New Orleans, was fixed upon, and one hundred and fifty 
negroes from the plantations near at once set to work. 
In six days they completed the parapet, with a glacis 
on the opposite side. 

Commodore Patterson removed from the Louisiana 
a number of her guns, which he placed in battery in front 
of Jordon's plantation, on the right bank, with which he 
did important service to the end of the campaign. This 
formidable battery was formed to give a deadly flank- 
ing fire on the enemy's ranks from the opposite bank of 
the river. It was manned and served by sailors, mostly 
landed from the Carolina when she was burned. They 
had been enlisted about the city after the gunboats were 
destroyed: men of all nations, not a third of them speak- 
ing the English language. The constant daily fire of this 
battery caused the British to fall back from Chalmette's 
and Bien venue's houses and to seek safer quarters in 
the rear, after the artillery duels of the twenty-eighth. 
Captain Henly, of the late ship CaroHna, was placed 
in command of a strong redoubt on the bank of the river, 
opposite New Orleans, around which was a fosse twenty- 



56 The Battle of New Orleans 

five feet in width, the earth from which was thrown up 
to form a steep glacis, from the stimmit of the wall serv- 
ing as a parapet to the brink of the fosse. Here a battery 
of two twenty-four pounders commanded at once the 
road and the river back to the swamp. 

The Tennesseans, placed on the left, and operating 
in the undergrowth of the woods of the swamp, were a 
continual terror to the British sentinels and outposts. 
Clad in their brown hunting-dress, they were indistin- 
guishable in the bush, while with their long rifles they 
picked off some of the British daily. The entrenchment 
line was being daily strengthened. 

A Second Attempt to Breach the American Works, 

ON the First of January — Great 

Artillery Duel. 

On the evening of the twenty-fifth, Sir Edward Pak- 
enham arrived at the British headquarters, and at once 
assumed chief command of the army in person. He 
was a favorite of Lord Wellington in the Peninsular cam- 
paigns, and held in high esteem by the English Govern- 
ment and people. His presence imparted great enthu- 
siasm to the officers and men of the arniy, a majority of 
whom had served under him in other wars. The invad- 



The Battle of New Orleans 57 

ing British forces were now swelled to over ten thousand 
men for present service. On the thirtieth and thirty- 
first, the enemy was ominously busy in throwing up 
redoubts and in pushing his offensive works in threaten- 
ing nearness to our lines. In front of Bien venue's house 
he constructed a battery, of hogsheads of sugar taken 
from the near plantations, the season for grinding the 
cane and converting the product into sugar having just 
closed. A redoubt was also begun at a point nearer the 
wood, fronting the American left, and some guns mounted 
by the thirty-first. A heavy cannonading was opened 
on this day, from this and other batteries along the Brit- 
ish front, to which our own guns responded, including 
those of the marine battery across the river, until two 
in the afternoon. 

These demonstrative movements of the enemy, with 
his busy reconnoitering, foreboded an attack in force. 

In the night of the thirty-first he erected, under cover 
of darkness, two other batteries of heavy guns at a dis- 
tance of six hundred yards from the front of Jackson's 
entrenchments, on a ditch running along the side of Chal- 
mette's plantation, at distances of three and six hundred 
yards from the river. During the night the men work- 
ing on the platforms and mounting the ordnance could 
be distinctly heard. 



58 The Battle of New Orleans 

On the moniing of the ist of January, 1815, the earth 
was veiled by a dense fog until eight o'clock. As the 
misty cloud lifted above the horizon, the enemy opened 
up a terrific fire from his three batteries in front, mount- 
ing respectively two, eight, and eight pieces of heavy 
cannon. A meteor-like shower of Congreve rockets accom- 
panied the balls, filling the air for fifteen minutes with 
these missiles of terror. The two batteries nearest the 
river directed their fire against McCarty's house, some 
hundreds of yards behind our front line, where Jackson 
and his staff had their headquarters. In less than ten 
minutes more than one hundred balls, rockets, and shells 
struck the house. Bricks, splinters of wood, and broken 
furniture were sent flying in all directions, making the 
premises dangerously untenable. General Jackson and 
his staff occupied the house at the time; yet, strange 
to say, not a person was even wounded. There is no 
account that the old hero " ingloriously fled," but it is 
in evidence that he retired with commendable dispatch to 
a safer place. 

Though the batteries of the enemy were in a better 
position, on a lower plane, and with a narrower front 
than those of the Americans, the gunners of the latter 
fired with more precision and effect on this day, and on 
other occasions, as their own officers afterward admitted. 



The Battle of New Oyleans 59 

In an hour's time the fire from the enemy's side began to 
slacken, and continued to abate until noon, when his 
two batteries to the right were abandoned. Our balls 
dismounted several of his guns early in the day, and in 
the afternoon the greater part of his artillery was dis- 
mounted or unfit for service. The carriages of three of 
the guns on the American side were broken, and two 
caissons, with over one hundred rounds of ammunition, 
were blown up by rockets, at which the enemy loudly 
cheered. The cheeks of the embrasures of our batteries 
were formed of cotton bales, which the enemy's balls 
struck, sending the cotton flying through the air. The 
impression that Jackson's breastwork line was constructed 
of bales of cotton is a mistake. Bales of cotton were 
used only at the bottom and sides of the embrasures, 
for a firmer support for the artillery, beneath a casing 
of heavy plank. The British, in the ab.sence of cotton 
bales, used hogsheads of sugar, which were conveniently 
near, for the same purposes. These our shot easily 
knocked to pieces, saturating the damp earth around 
with the saccharine sweets. Our breastworks were more 
substantially and easily made of the alluvial earth. 

The guns of the British batteries nearest the levee 
were directed in part against the marine battery across 
the river during the day, but with Httle effect. Before 



6o The Battle of New Orleans 

the close the enemy's guns were silenced, and several 
of them abandoned. The British coliimns were in readi- 
ness, drawn up in several parallel lines, prudently await- 
ing in the back ditches and the trenches between the 
batteries a favorable moment to advance to an assault 
of our lines. In this they were disappointed ; the superi- 
ority of the American artillery left them no hope of an 
advantage by breaching our lines with this arm. That 
this was their object their own authorities state. The 
losses this day of the Americans were thirty-five killed 
and wounded; the enemy admitted a loss of seventy-five. 
During the night of the first of January, the latter suc- 
ceeded in removing his heavy guns from the dismantled 
batteries, dragging them off with much difficulty through 
the mired earth. 

A View from the Enemy's Standpoint. 

It is interesting to view a situation from an enemy's 
standpoint, and to know the impressions made upon an 
enemy's mind in a great issue like the one of contest. 
We quote again from Gleig's "Campaigns of the English 
Army ' ' : 

It was Christmas Day, and a number of officers, clubbing 
their scant stocks of provisions, resolved to dine together in 
memory of former times. But at so melancholy a Christmas 



The Battle of New Orleans 6i 

dinner, I do not remember to have been present. We dined 
in a bam; of tableware, of viands, and of good cookery, 
there was a dismal scarcity. These were matters, however, 
of minor thought; the want of many well-known and beloved 
faces thrilled us with pain. While sitting at the table, a loud 
shriek from outside startled the guests. On running out, we 
found that a shot from the enemy's ship had cut almost in 
twain the body of a soldier, and he was gasping in death. 

On the twenty-eighth, the British army advanced in full 
force, supported by ten pieces of artillery, with a view to a final 
assault. They did not do much more than the bringing on of 
a heavy artillery duel, in which they were severely worsted 
and driven back to camp. That the Americans are excellent 
shots, as well with artillery as with rifles, we had frequent 
cause to acknowledge ; but perhaps on no occasion did they 
assert their claim to the title of good artillerymen more effec- 
tually than on the present. Scarcely a shot passed over, or 
fell short; but all striking full into our ranks, occasioned ter- 
rible havoc. The crash of the fire-locks and the fall of the 
killed and wounded, caused at first some confusion. In half 
an hour three of our heavy guns were dismounted, many gun- 
ners killed, and the rest obliged to retire. The infantry ad- 
vanced under a heavy discharge of round and grape shot, until 
they were checked by a canal in front. A halt was ordered, and 
the men commanded to shelter themselves in a wet ditch as best 
they could. 

Thus it fared with the left of the army. The right failing 
to penetrate through the swamp, and faring no better, was 
compelled to halt. All thought of a general attack for this 
day was abandoned. It only remained to withdraw the troops 



62 The Battle of New Or leans 

from their perilous position with as Httle loss as possible. This 
was done, not in a body, but regiment by regiment, under the 
same discharge which saluted their approach. 

There seemed now but one practicable way of assault; to 
treat these field-works as one would treat a regular fortification, 
by erecting breaching batteries against them, and silencing, 
if possible, their guns. To this end three days were employed 
in landing heavy cannon, bringing up ammunition, and mak- 
ing other preparations, as for a siege. One half of the army 
was ordered out on the night of the thirty-first, quietly led up 
to within three hundred yards of the enemy's works, and busily 
employed in throwing up a chain of works. Before dawn, 
six batteries were completed, with thirty pieces of heavy can- 
non mounted, when the troops, before the dawn of day, fell 
back and concealed themselves behind some thick brush in 
the rear. The Americans had no idea of what was going on 
until morning came. This whole district was covered with 
the stubble of sugar-cane, and every storehouse and bam 
was filled with large barrels containing sugar. In throwing 
up the works this sugar was used. Rolling the hogsheads 
towards the front, they were placed in the parapets of the 
batteries. Sugar, to the amount of many thousand pounds 
sterling, was thus disposed of. 

On the morning of January ist, a thick haze obscured the 
sun, and all objects at the distance of a few yards, for some 
hours. Finally, as the clouds of fog drifted away, the Ameri- 
can camp was fully exposed to view, but three hundred yards 
away. The different regiments were upon parade, and pre- 
sented a fine appearance. Mounted officers rode to and fro, 
bands were playing, and colors floating in the air. All seemed 



The Battle of New Orleans 63 

gala, when suddenly our batteries opened. Their ranks were 
broken; the different corps dispersing, fled in all directions, 
while the utmost terror and disorder appeared to prevail. 

While this consternation lasted among the infantry, their 
artillery remained silent; but soon recovering confidence, they 
answered our salute with great precision and rapidity. A 
heavy cannonade on both sides continued during the day, until 
our ammunition began to fail — our fire slackening, while that 
of the enemy redoubled. Landing a number of guns from their 
flotilla, they increased their artillery to a prodigious amount. 
They also directed their cannon on the opposite bank against 
the flank of our batteries, and soon convinced us that all en- 
deavors to surpass them in this mode of fighting would be 
useless. Once more, we were obliged to retire, leaving our 
heavy guns to their fate. The fatigue of officers and men, it 
would be difficult to form a conception of. For two entire 
nights and days not a man had closed his eyes, except to sleep 
amid showers of cannon-balls. We retreated, therefore, baffled 
and disheartened. It must be confessed that a murmur of 
discontent began to be heard in the camp. The cannon and 
mortars of the enemy played on our men night and day, from 
thier main position; likewise a deadly fire from eighteen pieces 
on the opposite bank swept the entire line of our encampment. 
The duty of a picket was as dangerous as to go into battle. 
The American sharpshooters harassed them from the time 
they went on duty till they were relieved ; while to light fires 
served only as marks for the enemy's gunners. The murmurs 
were not of men anxious to escape from a disagreeable situa- 
tion; but rather resembled the growlings of a chained animal, 
when he sees his adversary, but can not reach him. All were 
eager to bring matters to the issue of a battle, at any sacrifice. 



64 Tlie Battle of New Orleans 

Tennessee and Kentucky Troops Arrive — Govern- 
ment Censured for Neglect. 

General Carroll's division of Tennessee troops arrived 
about this time; also the Louisiana militia were reinforced 
by several companies from the more distant parishes. On 
the fourth of January the entire body of Kentucky militia 
reached New Orleans, twenty-two hundred in nvmiber, 
and went into camp on Prevost's plantation. The day 
following, seven hundred and fifty of these repaired to 
the lines, and went into camp in the rear, arms being 
ftirnished to but five hundred of the number. There 
were, at this time, nearly two thousand brave and willing 
men within Jackson's lines, whose services were lost to the 
army and to the country for the want of arms. The 
dangerous delay of the arrival of the troops, and with 
this, the failure of the arrival of the arms and munitions 
necessary to equip the men for service, had their begin- 
ning in the culpable negligence of the War Department 
at Washington, of which history has had occasion to 
complain. But a more immediate cause for the irrep- 
arable delay in the arrival of the stores for anning and 
equipping the troops is found in the conduct of the 
quartermaster who superintended the shipment of the 
same from Pittsburgh. Though he was offered a contract 



The Battle of Neiu Orleans 65 

to ship these supphes by a steamboat, and to dehver them 
at New Orleans in ample time for use, for some reason 
he declined the offer. He then had them loaded on a 
flatboat and slowly floated to their destination, when 
there was little or no hope of their arrival in time for use. 
At the date of the final battle at New Orleans they were 
afloat somewhere near the mouth of the Ohio River, and 
of course did not arrive until many days after all need 
of them was over. 

On the twenty-ninth of December, General Jackson 
wrote to the Secretary of War these words of protest 
against this failure to make provision for his army in 
such a crisis as the present: 

I lament that I have not the means of carrying on more 
offensive operations. The Kentucky troops have not arrived, 
and my effective force at this point does not exceed three 
thousand men. That of the enemy must be at least double; 
both prisoners and deserters agreeing in the statement that 
seven thousand landed from their boats. 

When the militia of Kentucky were called for, Gov- 
ernor Shelby was assured that the United States quarter- 
master would furnish transportation for the troops to 
New Orleans; but no such officer reported himself, and 
no relief came from Washington. The men had rendez- 
voused on the banks of the Ohio in waiting, and here 



66 The Battle of New Orleans 

the expedition must have ended had not Colonel Richard 
Taylor, of Frankfort, then quartemiaster of the State 
militia, on his own credit, borrowed a sum sufficient to 
meet the immediate emergency. With this he purchased 
such boats as he could, some of which were unfit for the 
passage. Camp equippage could not be had in time, 
and about thirty pots and kettles were bought at Louis- 
ville, one to each company of eighty men. At the mouth 
of the Cumberland River they were detained eight days, 
with their axes and frows riving boards with which to 
patch up their old boats. From this point they started 
with half a supply of rations, to which they added as 
they could on the way down the Mississippi River. The 
men knew there was due them an advance of two months' 
pay when ordered out of the State. The United States 
quartermaster distributed this pay to the Tennessee 
troops who had preceded them, but withheld it from the 
Kentuckians. Believing that they would be furnished 
suitable clothing or pay, blankets, tents, arms, and 
munitions with reasonable promptness, they left home 
with little else than the one suit of clothing they wore, 
usually of homespun jeans. As a writer has said: 
"Rarely, if ever, has it been known of such a body of 
men leaving their homes, unprovided as they were, and 
risking a difficult passage of fifteen hundred miles in the 



The Battle of N'ew Orleans 67 

crudest of barges to meet an enemy. They could have 
been prompted alone by a patriotic love of country and 
a defiance of its enemies." This contribution of Ken- 
tucky for the defense of Louisiana was made just after 
she had furnished over ten thousand volunteer troops 
in the campaigns of Harrison in the Northwest, who made 
up the larger part of the soldiers in that army for the 
two years previous, and who recently had won the great 
victory at the battle of the Thames. Governor Shelby 
tendered to the government ten thousand more Ken- 
tuckians for the army of the Southwest, if they were 
needed to repel the invaders. 

It was in the midst of an unusually severe winter in 
Louisiana, in a season of almost daily rainfalls, when 
the Kentucky and part of the Tennessee troops reached 
their destination. They went into camp without tents 
or blankets or bedding of straw even, on the open and 
miry alluvial ground, with the temperature at times at 
freezing point. This destitution and consequent suffer- 
ing at once enlisted the attention and sympathies of 
the public. The Legislature of Louisiana, in session, 
promptly voted six thousand dollars for relief, to which 
the generous citizens added by subscription ten thousand 
dollars more. With these funds materials were purchased. 
The noble women of New Orleans, almost without an 
exception, devoted themselves day and night to making 



68 The Battle of New Orleans 

up the materials into suitable garments and distributing 
them as they were most needed. In one week's time the 
destitute soldiers were supplied and made comfortable. 
These backwoodsmen defenders of their country did not 
forget till their dying day the generous and timely minis- 
tries in a time of trial, in which the women and the men 
of Louisiana, and especially of New Orleans, seemed to 
vie; nor did they cease to speak in their praise. 

Again, in view of the approaching battle, Jackson, in 
correspondence with the Secretary of War, complains 
that the arms from Pittsburgh had not yet arrived, 
expressing grave apprehensions of the consequences. 
"Hardly," said he, "one third of the Kentucky troops, 
so long expected, are armed; and the arms they have 
are barely fit for use." He presages that the defeat of 
our armies and the dishonor of the officers commanding, 
and of the nation, may be consequences chargeable to the 
neglect of the government. 

The American batteries on both sides of the river 
continued day and night to fire upon and harass the 
British. Wherever a group of the latter appeared, or an 
assailable object presented, the American fire was 
directed to disperse or destroy. This incessant cannon- 
ading exercised our gunners in the more skillful use of 
their pieces, annoyed the enemy in the work of his fortifi- 
cations, and rendered his nights well-nigh sleepless. 



The Battle of New Orleans 69 

Jackson's Entrenched Line, and the Positions of 
THE Troops and Artillery. 

Jackson's lines, five miles below the city, were along 
the canal, or old mill-race, on the border of the planta- 
tions of Rodrique and Chalmette. The old ditch, unused 
for years, had filled up in part with the washings of 
the earth from its sides, and grown over with grass. It 
was chosen because it lay at a point the shortest in dis- 
tance from the river to the swamp, and thus the more 
easily defended. Along the upper bank of the canal a 
parapet was raised, with a banquet behind to stand upon, 
by earth brought from the rear of the line, thus raising 
the original embankment. The opposite side of the canal 
was but little raised, forming a kind of glacis. 

Plank and posts from the adjacent fencing were taken 
to line the parapet and to prevent the earth from falling 
back into the canal. All this was done at intervals of 
relief, by the different corps, assisted by labor from the 
plantations near. It was not until the seventh of Janu- 
ary that the whole extent of the breastwork was proof 
against the enemy's cannon. 

The length of the line was less than one mile, more 
than half of which ran from the river to the wood, the 
remainder extending into the depths of the wood, taking 



JO The Battle of New Orleans 

an oblique direction to the left and terminating in the 
impassable swamp. The parapet was about five feet 
in height and from ten to twenty feet thick at the 
base, extending inland from the river one thousand 
yards. Beyond that, to the wood and swamp, where 
artillery could not well be employed, the breastwork 
was fomied of a double row of logs, laid one over the 
other, leaving a space of two feet, which was filled with 
earth. 

The artillery was distributed on the line as follows: 

Battery i. Captain Humphries, of the United States 
artillery, consisted of two twelve-pounders and a howitzer, 
on field carriages, and was located thirty yards from the 
river, outside the levee. 

Battery 2, ninety yards from Battery i; Lieutenant 
Norris, of the navy; one twenty-four poimder. 

Battery 3, fifty yards from Battery 2; Captains Domi- 
nique and Bluche, of the Baratarians; two twenty- 
four pounders. 

Battery 4, twenty yards from Battery 3; Captain 
Crawly, of the navy, one thirty-two pounder, served by 
part of the crew of the Carolina. 

Battery 5, Colonel Perry and Lieutenant CaiT, of the 
artillery; two six-pounders, one hundred and ninety yards 
from Battery 4. 



The Battle of New Orleans 71 

Battery 6, thirty-six yards from Battery 5; Lieuten- 
ant Bertel; one brass twelve-pounder. 

Batter>^ 7, one hundred and ninety yards from Battery 
6; Lieutenants Spotts and Chauveau; one eighteen- and 
one six-pounder. 

Battery 8, sixty yards from Battery 7; one brass 
carronade, next Carroll's and Adair's commands. 

Out beyond this last piece the Hne formed a receding 
elbow, mentioned above, made unavoidable by great 
sinks in the soil, filled with water from the canal. Here, 
and beyond into the wood, the ground was so low that 
the troops were literally encamped in the water, walking 
often in mire a foot in depth, their few tents being pitched 
on small mounds surrounded with water or mud. Amid 
these discomforts, in this ague-breeding miasm, the Ten- 
nesseans, under Generals Coffee and Carroll, and the 
Kentuckians, under General Adair, for days endured the 
dangers of battle and privations of camp and campaign. 
As one historian who was with Jackson's army writes: 
"They gave an example of the rarest military' virtues. 
Though constantly living and sleeping in the mire, these 
patriotic men never uttered a complaint or showed the 
least symptoms of impatience. It was vitally necessary 
to guard that quarter against an attack on our fiank, and 
to repulse him on the edge of our breastwork, where artil- 



72 The Battle of New Orleans 

lery cotild not be employed. We had no battery on the 
center and left for thirteen hundred yards, the nature of 
the ground not admitting. The Tennesseans and Ken- 
tuckians defended this entire two thirds of our line with 
rifles and muskets only. As anticipated, the enemy 
made his main assault against these rifles and muskets, 
in a vain attempt to flank our army." 

A view of the positions of the respective corps in Jack- 
son's line will be of interest here. The redoubt on the 
river, where the I'ight of the line rested, was guarded by a 
company of the Seventh United States Infantry, com- 
manded by Lieutenant Ross; the artillery was served 
by a detachment of the Forty-fourth United States 
Infantry, under Lieutenant Marant. At the extremity 
of the line, between Battery i and the river, was posted 
Captain Beale's company of New Orleans Rifles, thirty 
men strong. The Seventh United States Regiment 
covered the space from Batteries i to 3, four hundred 
and thirty men, commanded by Major Peire. The inter- 
val between Batteries 3 and 4 was occupied by Major 
Plauche's battalion of Louisiana uniformed companies, 
and by Major Lacoste's battalion of Loviisiana men of 
color, the former two hundred and eighty-nine men, and 
the latter two hundred and eighty strong. From Bat- 
teries 4 to 5, the line was held by Major Daquin's bat- 





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The Battle of New Orleans 



73 



talion of St. Domingo men of color, one hundred and 
fifty in number; and next to these were placed the Forty- 
fourth United States Regulars, two hundred and forty 
men, commanded by Colonel Baker. 

From this point toward the center and left, for eight 
hundred yards, the breastwork was manned by the troops 
from Tennessee, commanded by General Carroll, and 
the Kentuckians, under command of General Adair, 
supported by the men of the nearest batteries. General 
Can-oil reported that he had over one thousand Tennes- 
seans in his immediate command, in line of action. 
General Adair had, on the morning of the seventh of Janu- 
ary, received arms for only six hundred of the Kentucky 
troops. He says, in a subsequent correspondence, that 
on the seventh, anticipating the attack of the British 
the following day, he went into New Orleans, and plead 
with the Mayor and Committee of Safety to lend him, 
for temporary use, several hundred stand of arms stored 
in the city armory and held for the defense of the city 
in emergency, and to put a check to any possible insur- 
rectionary disturbance. To this the Mayor and committee 
finally consented, on the condition that the removal of 
the arms out of the city should be kept secret from the 
public. To this end, instead of General Adair marching 
in and arming his men, the city authorities had the 



74 TJie Battle of Neiu Orleans 

arms, concealed in boxes, haviled out to the camp and 
delivered there. This was done late in the dusk of the 
evening, and on the night of the seventh four hun- 
dred more of the Kentuckians were thus armed and 
marched forward to take a position with their comrades 
just in the rear of the entrenchment, making one thou- 
sand Kentuckians under arms and ready for to-morrow's 
battle. 

In council with General Jackson, General Adair had 
suggested that the British would most probably endeavor 
to break our line by throwing heavy columns against it 
at some chosen point; and that such was the discipline 
of their veterans, they might succeed in the effort with- 
out very great resistance was made. To be prepared for 
such a contingency, it would be well to place a strong 
reserve of troops centrally in the rear of the line, ready 
at a moment's notice to reinforce the line at the point 
of assault. Jackson approved this suggestion, and gave 
orders to General Adair to hold the Kentucky troops 
of his command in position for such contingency. With 
Colonel Slaughter's regiment of seven hundred men, and 
Major Reuben Harrison's battalion, three hundred and 
five men (the Kentuckians under anns), Adair took posi- 
tion just in the rear of Carroll's Tennesseans, occupying 
the center of the breastwork line. 



The Battle of New Orleans 75 

By the statements of their commanders, the joint 
forces of the Tennesseans and Kentuckians defending 
the left center were about two thousand men. General 
Coffee's Tennesseans, five hundred in number, occupied 
the remainder of the line on the left, which made an 
elbow-curve into the wood, terminating in the swamp. 
Ogden's squad of cavalry and a detachment of Attakapas 
dragoons, about fifty men in all, were posted near the 
headquarters of the commander-in-chief, and these were 
later joined by Captain_Chauvau, with thirty mounted men 
from the city. The Mississippi cavalry. Major Hinds in 
command, were held in reserve, one hundred and fifty 
strong, posted on Delery's plantation. Detachments of 
Colonel Young's Louisiana militia, in all about two hun- 
dred and fifty men, were placed on duty at intervals on the 
skirts of the wood, behind the line as far as Piernas' Canal. 
Four hundred yards in the rear a guard was posted to 
prevent any one going out of the camp, and a line of 
sentinels was extended to the wood for the same purpose. 
The above details show that there were of Jackson's 
army on the left bank of the river, on active duty, about 
forty-six hundred men; yet on the battle-line of the 
eighth of January there were less than four thousand 
to engage the enemy. The remainder were in reserve, 
or on guard duty at various points. 



76 77?^ Battle of New Orleans 

From official reports and historical statements derived 
from British sources, there were present and in the corps 
of the British amiy of assault, on the morning of the 
eighth of January, about eleven thousand men, fully eight 
thousand of whom were in the attacking columns and 
reserve on the left bank of the river, the flower of the 
English aniiy. 

The Battle of Sunday, the Eighth of January. 

It was not yet daybreak on the morning of the eighth 
of January when an American outpost came hastily in, 
with the intelligence that the enemy was in motion and 
advancing in great force. In brief time, as the day began 
to dawn, the light discovered to our men what seemed 
the entire British army in moving columns, occupying 
two thirds of the space from the wood to the river. 
Obedient to the commands of their officers, who gallantly 
led in front of their men, the massive colimms of the 
enemy moved up with measured and steady tread. Sud- 
denly a Congreve rocket, set off at a point nearest the 
wood, blazed its way across the British front in the 
direction of the river. This was the signal for attack. 
Immediately the first shot from the American line was 
fired from the twelve-pounder of Battery 6. This was 
answered by three cheers from the enemy, who quickly 



The Battle of New Orleans 77 

formed in close column of more than two hundred men 
in front and many lines deep. These advanced in good 
order in the direction of Batteries 7 and 8, and to the left 
of these. It was now evident that the main assault would 
be made upon that part of the breastwork occupied by 
Can'oU's Tennesseans, with the intent to break the line 
here and flank Jackson's army on the right. 

As soon in the morning as word came that the British 
were in motion for an advance, General Adair formed 
his Kentuckians in two lines in close order, and marched 
them to within fifty paces of the breastwork, in the rear 
of Carroll's command. The day had dawned, and the 
fog slowly lifted. There was no longer doubt of the 
point of main assault, as the enemy's heaviest columns 
moved forward in Carroll's front. The lines of the Ken- 
tucky troops were at once moved vip in order of close 
column to the Tennesseans, deepening the ranks to five 
or six men for several hundred yards. Batteries 6, 7, 
and 8 opened upon the enemy when within four or five 
hundred yards, killing and wounding many, but causing 
no disorder in his ranks nor check to his advance. As 
he approached in range, the terrible fire of rifles and 
musketry opened upon him from the Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky infantry, each line firing and falling back to reload, 
giving place to the next line to advance and fire. 



78 The Battle of New Orleans 

The British attack was supported by a heavy artillery 
fire, while a cloud of rockets continued to fall in showers 
throughout the contest. The assaulting columns did 
little execution with small arms, as they came up relying 
more on the use of the bayonet in case of effecting a breach 
in our line. Some of them carried fascines and ladders 
in expectation of crossing the ditch and scaling the para- 
pet. But all in vain. The musketry and rifles of the 
Tennessee and Kentucky militia, joining with the fire 
of the artillery, mowed down whole files of men, and so 
decimated their ranks as to throw them into a panic of 
disorder and force a retreat. This first disastrous repulse 
was within twenty-five minutes after the opening of the 
battle. Writers present who have undertaken to describe 
the scene at the time say that the constant rolling fire of 
cannon and musketry resembled the rattling peals of 
thunder following the lightning flashes in a furious electric 
stonn. An English officer present mentions the phenome- 
non, that though the flashes of the guns were plainly 
visible in front, the firing seemed to be from the wood 
and swamp a mile or two away on the left. They did not 
hear the sound from the front, but only the echoes from 
the direction named, as though the battle raged out there. 

The defeated coltmm, forced to fall back broken and 
disordered, was finally rallied by the heroic eft'orts of the 



The Battle of New Orleans 79 

officers, reinforced with fresh troops, and led to a second 
attempt at assault; but the carnage and destmction 
were as great as in the first attempt, while almost no 
impression was made upon the defensive line of the Ameri- 
cans. The British were again compelled to retreat in 
disorder, leaving great ntimbers of their comrades dead 
or wounded on the ground, or prisoners to the Americans. 
The hope of victory had now become a forlorn one to the 
British. They were broken in numbers, broken in order 
and discipline, and broken in prestige. Yet the brave 
officers, led by their commanders-in-chief, determined 
not to give up the contest without a last desperate effort. 
A part of the troops had dispersed and retreated to shelter 
among the bushes on their right; the rest retired to the 
ditch where they were first perceived in the morning, 
about five hundred yards in our front. In vain did the 
officers call upon the men to rally and fonn again for 
another advance, striking some with the flat of their 
swords, and appealing to them by every incentive. They 
felt that it was almost certain destruction to venture 
again into the stomi of fire that awaited them, and were 
insensible to everything but escape from impending death. 
They would not move from the ditch, and here sheltered 
the rest of the day. The ground over which they had 
twice advanced and twice retreated was strewn thickly 



8o The Battle of New Orleans 

with their dead and wounded. Such slaughter of their 
own men, with no apparent loss on our side, was enough 
to appal the bravest of mankind. 

Nearly one hundred of the enemy reached the ditch 
in front of the American breastwork, half of whom were 
killed and the other half captured. A detachment of 
British troops had penetrated into the wood toward our 
extreme left, to divert attention by a feint attack. The 
troops under General Coffee opened on these with their 
rifles, and soon forced them to retire. 

After the main attack on the American left and center 
had begun, another coUmm of over twenty-five hun- 
dred men, under the command of General Keene, 
advanced along the road near the levee, and between the 
levee and the river, to attack the American line on the 
extreme right. They were partly sheltered by the levee 
from the fire of the artillery, except that of Battery i and 
the guns across the river. Our outposts were driven in, 
and the head of the column pushing forward occupied 
the unfinished redoiibt in front of our entrenched line 
before more than two or three discharges of artillery 
could be made. Overpowering the small force here, 
they compelled it to fall back, after killing and wounding 
a few men. Bravely led by Colonel Rence and other 
officers of rank, the British gained a momentary advan- 



The Battle of New Orleans 8i 

tage, and threatened to stonn the entrenchment itself. 
But Beale's Rifles from the city, defending this extreme, 
poured fatal volleys upon the head of the column, while 
Batteries i and 2 mowed down the ranks. The Seventh 
Regiment, the only infantry besides Beale's in musket 
range, did deadly execution also. By these, the farther 
advance of the enemy was made impossible, while the 
nearest ground they occupied was strewn with their dead 
and wounded, among whom were General Keene, Colonel 
Rence, and other prominent officers. Many passed the 
ditch and scaled the parapet only to be shot down in the 
redoubt by the uneiring riflemen behind the entrenched 
line. Like the main column on the left, this second col- 
umn on the right, broken and shattered, was compelled 
to fall back in great disorder upon the reserx^e, with no 
effort after to renew the assault. The dead and wounded 
lay thick along the road, the levee, and the river bank, 
as far out as the range of our guns. A flanking fire from 
the battery across the river harassed the troops in this 
column both in the advance and retreat, as they passed 
in plain view, from which fire they sustained severe 
losses. 

The battle was now ended as far as the firing of mus- 
ketry and small arms was concerned. The last volleys 
from these ceased one hour after the British column first 



82 The Battle of New Orleans 

in motion attacked our line upon the left center, at half- 
past seven o'clock. In that brief time, one of the best 
equipped and best disciplined armies that England ever sent 
forth was defeated and shattered beyond hope by one 
half its number of American soldiers, mostly militia. 
For one hour after the opening attack the firing along the 
American line had been incessant, and the roar of the 
cannon, mingling with the rattling noise of the musketry 
and rifles, reverberated over the open plains and echoed 
back from the wood and swamp, until the issue of combat 
sent the enemy to cover beyond range. The artillery 
from our batteries, however, kept up a continuous fire 
against the guns of the enemy, or against squads of their 
troops who might expose themselves, until two o'clock 
in the afternoon, when the lull of strife came to all. 

The scene upon the field of contest was one that can 
not be pictured in words to convey an adequate impres- 
sion. British officers who campaigned in Europe, in the 
wars of the Peninsula, testified that in all their military 
experiences they had witnessed nothing to equal the 
stubborn fierceness of the contending forces, and the 
fearful carnage that befell the troops of the British army. 
We have mentioned how thickly strewn was the ground 
along the levee and the road, on the right next to the river, 
with the dead and the wounded of the enemy. The fatal- 



The Battle of New Orlemis ' 83 

ity among the officers here was fearful. General Keene, 
in command of this second attacking coliimn, was borne 
from the field badly wounded. Colonel Rence, next in 
command with Keene, was killed while leading the assault 
in the redoubt. Near by fell Major King, mortally 
wounded, and others of rank, leaving the command with 
but few leaders to conduct the broken ranks in precipi- 
tate retreat. On our left, in the front of the Tennesseans 
and Kentuckians, the greatest execution had been done. 
The slaughter here was appalling. Within a space three 
hundred yards wide, and extending out two hundred 
yards from our breastwork on the battlefield, an area of 
about ten acres, the ground was literally covered with the 
dead and desperately wounded. A British officer, who 
became also historian, says that under the temporary 
truce he rode forward to view this scene. Such a one he 
never witnessed elsewhere. There lay before him in this 
small compass not less than one thousand men, dead or 
disabled by wounds, all in the uniform of the British 
soldier; not one American among the number. The 
fatality to the English officers had been even greater 
on our left than on our right. Lord Pakenham, com- 
mander-in-chief, after the first repulse of the main column, 
with a courage as reckless as it was vain rode foi-ward 
to rally his troops and lead them to a second attack in 



84 The Battle of New Orleans 

person, and in the midst of a hail of missiles from cannon 
and small- arms fell mortally hurt with several wounds, 
and died within an hour. Major-general Gibbs, next in 
command, was stricken down a few minutes after, dying 
within a few hours. Others in high rank were carried 
down in the holocaust of casualties, until the British 
army became unnerved for the want of leadership in 
the hour of disaster and peril. 

Adjutant-general Robert Butler, in his official report 
to General Jackson a few days after the battle of the 
eighth, placed the losses of the British at seven hundred 
killed, fourteen hundred wounded, and five hundred 
prisoners; twenty-six hundred men, or almost one third 
the entire number the enemy admitted to have taken 
part in the contest of the day. The loss of the Ameri- 
cans was six killed and seven wounded, thirteen in all. 
Instead of comment upon this remarkable disparity of 
losses, and the causes that led to such a signal victory 
for the Americans and such a humiliating defeat for our 
enemies, it will be more interesting to our readers to quote 
from English writers who were participants in the battle, 
and eye-witnesses of the scenes they describe with graphic 
pen. We are ever curious to know what others see and 
say of us, especially if they honestly criticize us with a 
spice of prejudice. 



The Battle of New Orleans 85 

An English Officer's Account of the Battle. 

Gleig, in his "History of British Campaigns," says: 

Dividing his troops into three columns, Sir Edward Paken- 
ham directed that General Keene, at the head of the Ninety- 
fifth, the light companies of the Twenty-first, Fourth, and 
Forty-fourth Regiments, and the two black corps, should 
make a demonstration on the right; that General Gibbs, with 
the Fourth, Twenty-first, Forty-fourth, and Ninety-third, 
should force the enemy's left; while General Lambert, with 
the Seventh and Forty -third, remained in reserve. Our num- 
bers now amounted to a little short of eight thousand, a force 
which, in any other part of America, would have been irre- 
sistible. The forces of the enemy were reported at twenty- 
three to thirty thousand. I suppose their whole force to have 
been twenty-five thousand. All things were arranged on 
the night of the 7th, for the 8th was fixed upon as the day 
decisive of the fate of New Orleans. 

On the morning of the 8th, the entire army was in battle 
array. A little after daylight. General Pakenham gave the 
word to advance The troops on the right and the left, hav- 
ing the Forty-fourth to follow with the fascines and ladders, 
rushed on to the assault. On the left, next to the river, a 
detachment of the Ninety-fifth, Twenty-first and Fourth, 
stormed a three-gun battery and took it. It was in advance 
of the main line of works. The enemy, in overpowering num- 
bers, repulsed our attacking force and recaptured the battery 
with immense slaughter. On our right again, the Twenty- 
first and Fourth being almost cut to pieces, and thrown into 



86 The Battle of New Orleans 

some confusion by the enemy's fire, the Ninety-third pushed 
up and took the lead. Hastening forward, our troops soon 
reached the ditch ; but to scale the parapet without ladders 
was impossible. Some few indeed, by mounting upon each 
others' shoulders, succeeded in entering the works; but these 
were, most of them, instantly killed or captured. As many 
as stood without were exposed to a sweeping fire, which cut 
them down by whole companies. It was in vain that the 
most obstinate courage was displayed. They fell by the hands 
of men they could not see. The Americans, without lifting 
their faces above the rampart, swung their fire-locks over 
the wall and discharged them directly upon their heads. 

Poor Pakenham saw how things were going, and did all 
that a general could do to rally his broken troops. He pre- 
pared to lead them on himself, when he received a slight 
wound in the knee, which killed his horse. Mounting another, 
he again headed tlie Forty-fourth, when a second ball took 
effect more fatally, and he dropped lifeless in the arms of his 
aid-de-camp. Bravely leading their divisions. Generals Gibbs 
and Keene were both wounded, and borne helpless from 
the field. All was now confusion and dismay. Without 
leaders, and ignorant of what was to be next done, the troops 
first halted, and then began to retire, till finally, the retreat 
was changed into a flight, and tliey quitted the ground in 
the utmost disorder. But the retreat was covered in gallant 
style by the reserve. The Seventh and Forty-third, under 
General Lambert., presented the appearance of a renewed 
attack, and the enemy, overawed, did not pursue. 

On the granting of a two-days' truce for the burial of the 
dead, prompted by curiosity, I mounted my horse and rode 



The Battle of New Orleans 87 

to the front. Of all the sights I ever witnessed, that which 
met me there was, beyond comparison, the most shocking 
and the most humiliating. Within the compass of a few hun- 
dred yards, were gathered together nearly a thousand bodies, 
all of them arrayed in British uniforms. Not a single Ameri- 
can was among them ; all were English. And they were thrown 
by dozens into shallow holes, scarcely deep enough to hide 
their bodies. Nor was this all. An American officer stood 
by smoking a cigar, and abruptly counting the slain with a 
look of savage exultation, repeating that their loss amounted 
only to eight killed and fourteen wounded. I confess that, 
when I beheld the scene, I hung down my head half in sor- 
row, and half in anger. With my officious informant, I had 
every inclination to pick a quarrel. But he was on duty, 
and an armistice existed, both of which forbade. I turned 
my horse's head and galloped back to the camp. 

The changes of expression now visible in every counte- 
nance, no language can portray. Only twenty hours ago, 
and all was hope and animation; wherever you went, you 
were enlivened by the sounds of merriment and raillery. The 
expected attack was mentioned, not only in terms of sanguine 
hope, but in perfect confidence as to the result. Now gloom 
and discontent everywhere prevailed. Disappointment, grief, 
indignation and rage succeeded each other in all bosoms; 
nay, so were the troops overwhelmed by a sense of disgrace, 
that, for awhile they retained their sorrow without hinting 
at the cause. Nor was this dejection because of laurels tar- 
nished, wholly. The loss of comrades was to the full, as affiict- 
ing as the loss of honor ; for, out of more than seven thousand 
m action on this side, no fewer than two thousand had fallen. 



88 The Battle of New Orleans 

Among these were two generals in chief command, and many 
officers of courage and abiUty. Hardly an individual survived 
who had not to mourn the loss of some special and boon com- 
panion. 

British Excuses for Defeat. 

Many causes for the failure of the campaign of invasion, 
and for the disastrous issue of the battle of the eighth, 
were conjectured in the English army. Almost universal 
blame was attributed to Colonel Mullins, of the Forty- 
fourth Regiment, which was detailed under orders to 
prepare and have ready, and to caiTy to the front on the 
morning of the eighth, fascines and ladders with which to 
cross the ditch and scale the parapet, as the soldiers 
fought their way to the breastwork of the Americans. It 
was freely charged that the Colonel deserted his trust and 
at the moment of need was half a mile to the rear. It was 
then that Pakenham, learning of Mullins' conduct, placed 
himself at the head of the Forty-fourth and endeavored to 
lead them to the front with the implements needed to 
storm the works, when he fell mortally wounded. Of this 
incident another British officer, Major B. E. Hill, writes: 

Before sunset of the 7th, I was directed to carry instruc- 
tions to Colonel Mullins, of the 44th, respecting the redoubt 
in which the fascines and scaling ladders were placed, and to 
report the result of my interview to Sir Edward Pakenham. 
I saw Colonel Mullins, and read to him the directions from 



The Battle of New Oyleans 89 

headquarters, begging to know if he thoroughly understood 
their purport? I was assured that nothing could be clearer. 
Reporting to Sir Edward, he thanked me for so completely 
satisfying him that the orders so important would be certainly 
and well executed. 

Colonel Mullins may have been guilty of conduct 
unbecoming an officer, for which he was tried and 
cashiered in England; he probably saved his life at the 
expense of his honor, in being absent from his post on that 
day. But the British officers magnified the importance 
of the presence of himself and his regiment with their 
fascines and ladders ready for use. Even with the help 
of these devices, there were not men enough in the Eng- 
lish army to have crossed the ditch, climbed the parapet, 
and made a breach in the breastwork line of the Ameri- 
cans. Some of them might have reached the ditch alive, 
as did some of their comrades, but like those comrades 
they would have died in the ditch or been made prisoners. 
The Americans, too, could have used the bayonet as well 
C3 the British, if necessary. 

Battle of the Eighth of January on the West Bank 
OF THE River. 

We have mentioned that after the night battle of 
the twenty-third of December General Jackson ordered 
General Morgan to move his command of Louisiana troops 



90 The Battle of New Orleaus 

from English Turn, seven miles below the British camp 
at Villere's, and to take a position on the west bank of 
the Mississippi, opposite to the i\merican camp. Very 
naturally, the possibihty, and even the probability, of 
the enemy, when his army was made formidable by all 
the reinforcements coming up, throwing a heavy flank- 
ing force across the river, marching it to a point opposite 
New Orleans and forcing a surrender of the city, suggested 
itself to the military eye of Jackson. After the latter 
entrenched at Rodrique Canal, by the first of January, 
there was no other strategical route by which the British 
could have successfully assailed the city. The impor- 
tance of this seems to have been fully comprehended 
neither by the one combatant nor the other until too late 
to fully remedy the omission. 

Just such a flanking movement was undertaken by 
the English at the latest day, which brought on a second 
battle on the eighth, on the right bank of the river, result- 
ing in a defeat to the American forces, and well-nigh 
ending in disaster to the American cause. It is in evidence 
that this strategic movement was the result of a council 
of war held by the British officers, at which Admiral 
Sir Alexander Cochrane was present. This idea of reach- 
ing the city by a heavy detachment thrown across the 
river and marching up to a point opposite, in cannon 



The Battle of New Orleans 



91 



reach, had occun-ed before ; but the difficulty was in find- 
ing a way to cross over the troops and artillery, with the 
Americans in command of the means of transportation. 
The suggestion came from Admiral Cochrane that the 
Villere Canal from the bayou could be easily deepened 
and widened to the river bank and opened into the river 
for the passage of the boats and barges from the fleet, and 
a sufficient force thrown across the liver in that way 
under cover of night. This seemed feasible, and the 
strategy determined on. It is related further that Lord 
Pakenham insisted that the main attack upon the city 
for its capture shovdd be made by a heavy detachment 
in this direction, and at the same time only a demon- 
stration in force made on the American breastworks 
with the whole army, supported by the artillery. He 
urged that to directly assault the fortified line in front 
would be at a fearful loss of life, if successful ; if it failed 
it would be disastrous. The Admiral rephed to this taunt- 
mgly, that there was no cause for alarm over anticipated 
defeat ; he would undertake to force the lines of the Amer- 
ican militia with two or three thousand marines. In 
allusion to this, Latour says: "If the British commander- 
in-chief was so unmindful of what he owed to his country, 
and to the arniy committed to his charge, as to yield to 
the ill-judged and rash advice of the Admiral, he sacri- 



92 The Battle of New Orleans 

ficed reason in a moment of irritation; though he atoned 
with his Ufe for having acted contrary to his own judg- 
ment." Undoubtedly the Enghsh made their last and 
most fatal blunder here. 

As the English writers who were with the army have 
so variously minimized the forces under Colonel Thorn- 
ton, and so exaggerated the numbers of the Americans 
in this affair on the west bank, we quote from the ofhcial 
report of Major-general Lambert, who succeeded to the 
immediate command of the invading amiy after the fall 
of Generals Pakenham, Gibbs, and Keene, what appears 
to be reliable: 

To Lord Bathurst: January loth, 1815. 

It becomes my duty to lay before your Lordship the pro- 
ceedings of the force lately employed on the right bank of the 
Mississippi River. Preparations had been made on our side 
to clear out and widen the canal that led from the bayou to the 
river, by which our boats had been brought up to the point 
of disembarkation, and to open it to the Mississippi, by which 
our troops could be got over to the right bank, and the cooper- 
ation of armed boats be secured. A corps consisting of the 
85th light infantry, two hundred seamen, four hundred marines, 
the 5th West India Regiment, and four pieces of artillery, under 
the command of Colonel Thornton, of the 85th, were to pass 
over during the night, and move along the right bank toward 
New Orleans, clearing its front, until it reached the flanking 
battery of the enemy on that side, which it had orders to carry. 



The Battle of New Orleans 93 

Unlooked for difficulties caused delay in the entrance of the 
armed boats from the canal into the river, destined to land 
Colonel Thornton's corps, by which several hours' delay was 
caused. The ensemble of the general movement was lost, a 
point of the last importance to the main attack on the left bank, 
although Colonel Thornton ably executed his instructions. 

Maj.-Gen. Lambert, Coui'd'g. 

The two regiments above, with the seamen and 
marines, if all were present, would have given Colonel 
Thornton a command of nearly two thousand men. But 
it is said that in consequence of some difficulties in getting 
the boats through the canal into the river, and delay 
consequent thereon, a part of the forces were left behind. 
From the best authorities, there were twelve hundred 
British troops landed upon the west bank of the river 
on the morning of the eighth, by daybreak — all except 
the West India regiment. 

Defensive Works and Forces on the West Bank, 
Opposite Jackson's Camp. 

General Morgan, commanding the Louisiana militia, 
was in position on Raquet's old canal site, next to the river. 
Major Latour, chief of the engineer corps, had been 
instructed by General Jackson, a week or two before the 
battle, to proceed across the river and to select on that 



94 The Battle of New Orleans 

side a suitable line for defensive works for General Mor- 
gan, in case the enemy should attempt a flanking move- 
ment on the right bank. Of this mission, Major Latour 
writes : 

Agreeable to orders, I waited on General Morgan, and in 
the presence of Commodore Patterson communicated to him 
my orders, and told him I was at his disposal. The General 
seemed not to come to a conclusion, but inclined to make choice 
of Raquet's line. He then desired that I inspect the different 
situations myself, and make my report to him. My orders 
were to assist him, and my opinion was subordinate to his. 

I chose for the intended line of defense an intermediate 
position, nearly at equal distances from Raquet's and Jourdan's 
canal, where the wood inclines to the river, leaving a space of 
only about nine hundred yards between the swampy wood 
and the river. Works occupying this space could not weU be 
turned, without a siege and assault in heavy force by the enemy. 
I made a rough draft of the intended line, and immediately 
the overseer set his negroes to execute the work. Returning 
to the left bank, I made my report to the Commander-in-chief, 
who approved the disposition made. One thousand men could 
have guarded a breastwork line here, and half that number 
would have been sufficient had pieces of cannon been mounted 
in the intended outworks. That line, defended by the eight 
hundred troops and the artillery of General Morgan's com- 
mand, on the 8th, could have defied three or four times the 
number of British who crossed over to the right bank that day. 
But these dispositions had been changed by General Morgan, 
and the negroes ordered to work on the Raquet line. 



The Battle of New Orleans 95 

Major Latour had selected for General Jackson his 
line of defense on the left bank of the river, and had 
directed the construction of the breastwork and redoubts 
to the entire satisfaction of the General. He objected 
to the Raquet line favored by General Morgan, as 
wholly unsuited for defense. The space here from the 
river to the wood swamp was two thousand yards, or 
considerably over one mile, a much longer line than 
Jackson's on the other side. To be effective against 
an attacking force, the entrenchment and outworks must 
be extended to cover the entire space. It would require 
then more than double the number of troops and of 
pieces of artillery for defense than the situation selected 
by Latour. 

In determining on this change of the line of defense, 
contrary to the judgment and warning of the chief of the 
engineer corps. General Morgan seems to have been 
influenced by one consideration paramount to all others. 
He was in daily council with Commodore Patterson, and 
was assured of the powerful aid of his battery on the 
right bank, which had done such execution in the ranks 
of the British across the river. Should the enemy attack 
General Morgan's position at Raquet 's line, the Commo- 
dore could turn his twelve pieces of cannon in their 
embrazures, sweep the field, and drive back any reason- 



96 The Battle of New Orleans 

able force in range. With this support of his artillery, 
the few hundred militia of Morgan's command could 
more successfully repulse an attack at Raquet's line 
than at the line selected by Latour farther away. This 
change in the situation and plan of defense is character- 
ized by Latour and other authorities as an unmilitary 
proceeding, as it abandoned the idea of a fortified line 
behind which a successful defense could have been made 
probable, if not certain, for an almost open field subject 
to the flanking movement of veteran troops against raw 
militia, with no auxiliary support except a park of artillery 
with guns turned another way, and of most doubtful use 
in case of need. General Morgan must not share alone 
the criticism which has been so freely made of his dis- 
position of forces and changes of strategic plans which 
resulted in sensational disaster to his command. Com- 
modore Patterson, experienced in military affairs as 
well as naval, advised with him, and must have approved. 
This change of line, made some days before the eighth, 
must have been known, and on the representations of 
Morgan and Patterson, approved by General Jackson. 
It is not conceivable that so important a change of plans 
would have been made by a subordinate officer, affecting 
seriously the safety of New Orleans, without the con- 
sent of the commander-in-chief. The latter seemed always 



The Battle of New Orleans 97 

to have held in very high personal esteem these two 
officers, and to have had confidence in their abilities as 
commanders. 

As mentioned above, the dispositions made for a line 
of defense by Major Latom- were changed by General 
Morgan, and the negroes set to work on Raquet's line. 
A breastwork fortification was thrown up by the seventh 
of January, extending but two hundred yards from the 
river bank out on the site of the old canal. From this 
terminus across the plantation land to the wooded 
swamp was an open plain, with scarce an obstruction 
to the deploy of troops or the sweep of artillery. The 
old canal had long been in disuse, and the ditch was 
filled nearly fuh with the washings and deposits of years. 
Behind this two hundred yards of entrenchment General 
Morgan massed all the Louisiana troops of his command 
and planted his artillery, three pieces in all. From the 
end of the breastwork on the right, one mile or eighteen 
hundred yards to the swamp, there were no defensive 
works from behind which to repulse the assault of an 
enemy, nor any means of resistance in sight to an attack, 
other than the guns in battery of Commodore Patterson, 
of more than doubtful use, and the yet very doubtful 
contingent of reinforcements sufficient from General Jack- 
son's limited supply of men and amis. 



98 The Battle of New Orleans 

On the seventh, the forces of Morgan's immediate 
command were the First Louisiana MiUtia on the left, 
next to the river; on the right of these, the Second Louis- 
iana; and on the right of the latter, the drafted Louisiana 
militia, in all about five hundred men, who occupied the 
fortified line of two hundred yards. It was not until 
late this day that General Jackson seemed to fully 
awaken to the impending dangers of this formidable 
flanking movement across the river. He at once gave 
orders that five hundred of the unamied Kentucky 
militia in camp should be marched up the river to New 
Orleans and receive certain arms in store there; then 
cross the river, and march down five miles on the west 
bank and reinforce General Morgan's command by, or 
before, daylight next morning. It was late afternoon 
when they started on this tramp of ten miles, through 
mud and mire ankle deep. Arriving at New Orleans, 
it was found that four hundred stand of arms which were 
expected to be obtained from the city armory had been 
loaned to General Adair, and sent to him at the Ken- 
tucky camp for other use. From other sources some 
miscellaneous old guns were obtained to equip less than 
two hundred of the detailed Kentuckians, who crossed 
the river, began their weary night march, and reported 
to General Morgan before daylight of the eighth, ready 



The Battle of New Of leans 99 

for duty, though they had not slept for twenty-four hours, 
nor eaten anything since noon of the previous day. 
Their arms, a mongrel lot, were many of them unfit for 
combat; old muskets and hunting-pieces, some without 
flints, and others too small-bored for the cartridges. 

The British Cross the River and Land at Daybreak; 
They Begin the Attack — The Battle 
AND Retreat. 

About sunset on the evening of the seventh. General 
Morgan was notified of the intention of the enemy to 
cross the river by Commodore Patterson, who had closely 
observed his movements in the afternoon. Before day- 
dawn on the eighth, the General received information 
of the enemy landing on the west bank, at Andry's plan- 
tation. The rapid current of the Mississippi had carried 
his little flotilla three miles below the point he had desired 
to land. Having debarked his troops, he marched up the 
river; his boats, manned by four pieces of artillery, keep- 
ing abreast and covering his flank. A detachment of 
Louisiana militia, about one hundred and fifty men, 
under command of Major Arnaud, had been sent in the 
night a mile or two down the river to oppose the landing 
and to check the advance of the British. These raw 
militia, very poorly armed, retired before the enemv 



loo The Battle of New Oylea)is 

The detachment of one hundred and seventy Kentuckians 
iust arrived, under command of Colonel Davis, was 
ordered to move forward to the support of the command 
of Major Arnaud. Though wearied with the toilsome 
all-night march, the Kentucky troops went forward 
about one mile below Morgan's line and took position 
on Mayhew's Canal, their left resting on the bank of the 
river. Major Arnaud halted his Louisiana militia on 
the right of these in line. The enemy, over one thousand 
strong, came up in force under Colonel Thornton, who 
commanded the British in the night battle of the twenty- 
third. A heavy fire of musketry from the front was 
supported by a flanking fire of artillery and rockets from 
the boats. The command of Major Arnaud gave way 
and hastily retreated to the wood, appearing no more 
during the day on the field of action. The Kentuckians 
rettirned the fire of the enemy with several effective vol- 
leys, when they were ordered by an aid-de-camp of Gen- 
eral Morgan's, just arrived, to fall back and take a posi- 
tion on his line of defense. 

The falling back of the Kentuckians before the enemy 
was under orders which they could not but obey. They 
were holding him in check and inflictmg heavier losses 
than they were receiving, against four or five times their 
own numbers. They fell back one mile in good order. 



The Battle of New Orleans loi 

By disposition of the commanding officer, they were 
placed in line, with an open space of two hundred yards 
between their extreme left and the extreme right of the 
entrenched Louisianians, and stretched out to cover a 
space of three hundred yards, or one man to nearly two 
yards of space. The remainder of the line stretching to 
the wood on the extreme right, twelve hundred yards, 
was wholly without defensive works, or any defense 
excepting a picket of eighteen men under Colonel Cald- 
well, stationed out two hundred yards beyond the extreme 
right of the Kentuckians. Less than two hundred poorly 
aiTned militia were thus isolated and distributed in thin 
ranks to defend a line one mile in length, while General 
Morgan lay behind his entrenchment, defending a space 
of two hundred yards with five hundred troops and three 
pieces of artillery, which could have been easily held by 
two hundred men. 

Colonel Thornton, in command of the British troops, 
in advancing to the attack, readily perceived with his 
trained military eye the vulnerable situation of the Ameri- 
can forces. Gleig, the English author present, gives the 
disposition of the enemy's assaulting columns as fol- 
lows: The Eighty-fifth, Colonel Thornton's own regiment, 
about seven hundred men, stretched across the field, 
covering our front, with the sailors, two hundred in 



I02 The Battle of Nciu Orleans 

number, prepared to storm the battery and works; 
while the marines fonned a reserve, protecting the fleet 
of barges. It is not probable that the attack upon the 
entrenchments next to the river was intended to be more 
than a demonstration in force to hold the attention of 
General Morgan and his command there, while the main 
assault was being directed with the Eighty-fifth Regi- 
ment against the thin and unsupported line of the Ken- 
tucky militia, with a view of flanking these and getting 
in the rear of General Morgan's breastworks. 

We quote from Major Latour's "Historical Memoir" 
a further account : 

The enemy advancing rapidly by the road opposite the 
left of the line, the artillery played on him with effect; and 
as he came nearer, the musketry began to fire also. This hav- 
ing obliged him to fall back, he next directed his attack against 
the detached Kentuckians on our right, one column moving 
toward the wood and the other toward the centre of the line. 
Now was felt the effect of the bad position that we occupied. 
One of the enemy's columns turned our troops at the extremity 
of Colonel Davis' command, while the other penetrated into 
the unguarded space between the Kentuckians and the breast- 
work of the Louisianians. Flanked at both extremes by four 
times their own number, and unsupported, the Kentucky 
militia, after firing several volleys, gave way; nor was it pos- 
sible again to rally them. Confidence had vanished, and with 
it all spirit of resistance. If instead of extending over so much 



The Battle of New Of leans 103 

space, those troops had been formed in close coltimn, the con- 
fusion that took place might have been avoided, and a retreat 
in good order made. 

The enemy having turned our right, pushed on towards the 
rear of our left, which continued firing as long as possible. At 
length the cannon were spiked just as the enemy arrived on the 
bank of the canal. Commodore Patterson had kept up an 
artillery fire on the British over the river. As they advanced 
up the road, he would now have turned his cannon in their 
embrasures, and fired on those of the enemy who had turned 
our line and come in range. But the Kentucky troops and 
the Louisianians masked the guns, and made it impossible to 
fire without killing our own men. Seeing this, he determined 
to spike his guns and retreat. 

The Louisiana militia under General Morgan now fell back 
and took a position on the Bois Gervais line, where a number 
of the fleeing troops rallied. A small detachment of the enemy 
advanced as far as Cazelards, but retired before evening. In 
the course of the night all the enemy's troops recrossed the 
river, to join their main body. The result of this attack of the 
enemy on the right bank was, the loss of one hundred and 
twenty of his men, killed and wounded. The commander- 
in-chief, receiving intelligence of the retreat of our troops on 
the right bank, ordered General Humbert, formerly of the 
French army, who had tendered his services as a volunteer, 
to cross over with a reinforcement of four hundred men, assume 
command, and repulse the enem3^ cost what it might. The 
order was verbal ; some dispute having arisen over the question 
of military precedence, and the enemy withdrawing, no further 
steps were taken. 



I04 The Battle of New Orleans 

"The Kentuckians Ingloriously Fled"— A Profound 

Sensation. 

In this historic review, we dwell exhaustively upon 
the episode of this battle on the west bank, on the 8th 
of January, 1815, not because of any intrinsic impor- 
tance of the subject, but rather from the sensational inci- 
dents which attended the movements of the belligerents, 
and which were conseciuent upon the issue. The galling 
words of General Jackson, hastily and unguardedly uttered 
in an attempt to throw the blame of defeat upon a small 
detachment of Kentucky militia, "the Kentuckians 
ingloriously fled," were resented as an undeserved stigma 
upon the honor and good name of all the Kentuckians 
in the amiy, and upon the State of Kentucky herself. 
The epigrammatic phrase, construed to mean more than 
was intended, perhaps, like Burchard's " Rum, Roman- 
ism, and Rebellion," struck a chord of sympathetic emo- 
tion that vibrated not only in the army and the com- 
munity of Louisiana, but throughout the entire country. 
These burning words are of record in the archives at 
Washington, and remembered in history; but the facts 
in full, which vindicate the truth and render justice to 
whom it is due, are known to but few, if known to any 
now living. In the words of Latour: "What took place 



The Battle of New Orleans 105 

on the right bank had made so much sensation in the 
immediate seat of war, and had been so variously reported 
abroad, to the disparagement of many brave men, that I 
thought it a duty incumbent on me to inquire into par- 
ticulars and trace the effect to its cause." 

Rather than give our own impressions, we quote from 
"Reid and Eaton's Life of Jackson" an account of this 
affair, interesting because written when the subject was 
yet fresh in the public mind, and from the intimacy of 
the authors with the personal and public life of General 
Jackson : 

On the night of the 7 th, two hundred Louisiana militia 
were sent one mile down the river, to watch the movements 
of the enemy. They slept upon their arms until, just at day, 
an alarm was given of the approach of the British. They at 
once fell back towards General Morgan's line. The Kentucky 
detachment of one hundred and seventy men, having arrived 
at five in the morning, after a toilsome all-night march, were 
sent forward to cooperate with the Louisiana militia, whom 
Major Davis met retreating up the road. They now formed 
behind a mill-race near the river. Here a stand was made, 
and the British advance checked by several effective volleys. 
General Morgan's aid-de-camp being present, now ordered a 
retreat back to the main line of defense, which was made in 
good order. In the panic and disorderly retreat afterwards 
are to be found incidents of justification, which might have 
occasioned similar conduct in the most disciplined troops. 



io6 The Battle of New Orleans 

The weakest part of the hne was assailed by the greatest strength 
of the enemy. This was defended by one hundred and seventy 
Kentuckians, who were stretched out to an extent of three 
hundred yards, unsupported by artiUery. Openly exposed 
to the attack of a greatly superior force, and weakened by the 
extent of ground they covered, it is not deserving reproach 
that they abandoned a post they had strong reasons for believ- 
ing they could not maintain. General Morgan reported to 
General Jackson the misfortune of defeat he had met, and 
attributed it to the flight of these troops, who had drawn along 
with them the rest of his forces. True, they were the first to 
flee; and their example may have had some effect in alarming 
others. But, in situation, the troops differed. The one were 
exposed and enfeebled by the manner of their arrangement; 
the other, much superior in numbers, covered a less extent 
of ground, were defended by an excellent breastwork manned 
by several pieces of artillery; and with this difference, — the 
loss of confidence of the former was not without cause. Of 
these facts. Commodore Patterson was not apprised ; General 
Morgan was. Both reported that the disaster was owing to 
the flight of the Kentucky militia. Upon this information. 
General Jackson founded his report to the Secretary of 
War, by which these troops were exposed to censures they 
did not merit. Had all the circumstances as they existed, 
been disclosed, reproach would have been prevented. At 
the mill-race no troops could have behaved better; they 
bravely resisted the advance of the enemy. Until an order 
to that effect was given, they entertained no thought of 
retreating. 



The Battle of New Orleans 107 

Intelligence quickly came to General Jackson of the 
defeat and rout of General Morgan's command, imperil- 
ing the safety of the city of New Orleans, in the midst 
of the congratulations over the gre-at victory of the main 
army on the east bank. Naturally, a state of intense 
excitement followed, bordering on consternation for a few 
hours. When the danger was ended by the withdrawal 
of the British forces to recross the river, the report of 
General Morgan, followed by that of Commodore Pat- 
terson, came to headquarters, laying the blame of defeat 
and disaster to the alleged cowardly retreat of the Ken- 
tucky militia. With General Jackson's great personal 
regard for the authors of these reports, he took for granted 
the correctness of the charge of censurable conduct. 
Amid the tumult of emotions that must have been felt, 
rapidly succeeding the changes of scenes and incidents 
and issues of strategy and battle during that eventful 
twenty-four hotirs, the great commander yielded to the 
impulse of the moment to write in his official report to 
the Secretary of War, on the ninth, the day succeeding 
the battles, the following words: 

Simultaneously with his advance upon my lines, the enemy 
had thrown over in his boats a considerable force to the other 
side of the river. These having landed, were hardly enough 
to advance against the works of General Morgan ; and what is 



io8 The Battle ofNeio Or leans 

strange and difficult to account for, at the very moment when 
their discomfiture was looked for with a confidence approach- 
ing to certainty, the Kentucky reinforcement, in whom so much 
reliance had been placed, ingloriously fled, drawing after them 
by their example the remainder of the forces, and thus 
yielding to the enemy that most formidable position. The 
batteries which had rendered me, for many days, the most 
important service, though bravely defended, were of course 
now abandoned ; not, however, until the guns had been 
spiked. 

Commodore Patterson also sent in a report to the 
Secretary of the Navy, characterizing the little detach- 
ment of Kentucky militia in terms as censurable and as 
unjust as were the words of General Jackson. When 
these official reports became publicly known, imputing 
all blame of disaster to the retreat of the Kentuckians, 
an indignant protest was entered by General Adair and 
by the entire Kentucky contingent of the army. In 
this protest they had the sympathy and support of a 
large portion of other troops of the army, and of the 
community. Language at this late day of forgetfulness 
and calmer reason would be too tame to really portray 
the irritations, the bitter recriminations, and the angry 
protests which agitated army circles, and the civil com- 
munity as well, and which were echoed from many parts 
of the country at large. 



The Battle of New Orleans 109 

A Court of Inquiry Appointed by the Commander- 
in-chief Exonerates the Kentuckians. 

General Adair, supported by the officers of his com- 
mand, insisted that the statements made in these reports 
to the departments at Washington were made upon a 
misapprehension of the facts, and that great injustice 
had been done the Kentucky mihtia in General Morgan's 
command by attempting to shift the responsibility of 
defeat from its real sources, and placing it to their dis- 
credit. A mihtary court of inquiry was demanded, and 
granted by the commander-in-chief, the members of 
which were officers of rank in the army, and disinter- 
ested by their relations in the findings, and General Car- 
roll, of Tennessee, appointed to preside. The following 
notice was served on General Morgan, and similar notices 
on other officers concerned: 

New Orleans, La., Febraary 9, 1815. 
Brigadier-General Morgan. 

Sir: A Court of Inquiry is now in session for the purpose 
of inquiring into the conduct of the officers under your command, 
on the morning of the 8th of January. As you are somewhat 
concerned, I have to request that you will introduce such wit- 
nesses on to-morrow as you may think necessary. The con- 
duct of Colonel Cavalier, and of Majors Tesla and Arnaud, is 
yet to be inquired into. 

Your Most Obt. Servant, 

Wm. Carroll, Maj.-Gen'l, 

Prest. of Court. 



no The Battle of New Orleans 

The following opinion was rendered: 

Report of the Court of Inquiry. 

Headquarters 7th Military District. 

New Orleans, La., February 19, 1815. 

General Orders. 

At a Court of Inquiry, convened at this place on the 9th 
inst., of which Major-general Carroll is President, the mili- 
tary conduct of Colonel Davis, of Kentucky Militia, and of 
Colonels Dijon and Cavalier, of Louisiana Militia, in the engage- 
ment on the 8th of January last, on the west bank of the Mis- 
sissippi, were investigated; the Court, after mature delibera- 
tion, is of opinion that the conduct of those gentlemen in the 
action aforesaid, and retreat on the 8th of January, on the 
western bank of the river, is not reprehensible. The cause of 
the retreat the Court attributes to the shameful flight of the 
command of Major Arnaud, sent to oppose the landing of the 
enemy. The retreat of the Kentucky militia, which, con- 
sidering their position, the deficiency of their arms, and other 
causes, may be excusable; and the panic and confusion intro- 
duced into every part of the line, thereby occasioning the 
retreat and confusion of the Orleans and Louisiana militia. 
While the Court found much to applaud in the zeal and gal- 
lantry of the officer immediately commanding, they believe 
that a further reason for the retreat may be found in the 
manner in which the force was placed on the line ; which they 
consider exceptionable. The commands of Colonels Dijon, 



The Battle of New Oy leans m 

Cavalier, and Declouet, composing five hundred men, supported 
by three pieces of artillery, having in front a strong breastwork, 
occupying a space of only two hundred yards; whilst the Ken- 
tucky mihtia, composing Colonel Davis' command, only one 
hundred and seventy strong, occupied over three hundred 
yards, covered by a small ditch only. 

The Major-general approves the proceeding of the Court 
of Inquiry, which is hereby dissolved. 
By Command. 

H. ChOTARD, Assi. Adj. Gen. 



Controversy Between Jackson and Adair. 

General Adair seems to have regarded the decision 
of the Court of Inquiry as a modifying compromise, in 
deference to the high personal character and influence 
of a niunber of persons concerned, and not the full vindi- 
cation of the Kentucky militia from the imputations of 
ungallant conduct on the field reflected upon them in the 
official reports. The controversy, and other causes pre- 
ceding it, had rankled the bosoms of both General Jack- 
son and himself, and estranged the warm friendship that 
had before existed between them. Adair thought that 
Jackson should withdraw, or modify, the language of 
his official report. General Jackson was not a man to 
readily retract ; and was certainly not in the humor with 
Adair to retract anything he had said. He would do 



1 1 2 The Battle of New Oy/eans 

no more than approve the opinion of the Court of Inquiry. 
This, perhaps, was as much as General Adair should have 
asked at the time. 

On the loth of February, 1816, the Legislature of 
Kentucky, in a resolution of thanks to General Adair 
for gallant services at New Orleans, added: "And for 
his spirited vindication of a respectable portion of the 
troops of Kentucky from the libelous imputation of 
cowardice most unjustly thrown upon them by General 
Andrew Jackson." This and other incidents intensified 
the animosity of feeling. 

It was some two years after the close of hostilities 
that the correspondence between Jackson and Adair 
was terminated in language and spirit so intensely bitter 
as to make the issue personal. Adair had reported all 
proceedings and facts concerning the Kentucky troops 
during the campaign to Governor Shelby, who had taken 
a very active part in sending all possible aid for the defense 
of New Orleans. In these reports he reflected on what 
he deemed the injustice done the Kentucky troops in several 
official publications; especially by General Jackson, not 
only in the affair of Morgan's rout, but in his report of 
other operations during the campaign. These were 
causes of irritation on the part of the commander- 
in-chief. The burning words in the reports of General 




JOHN ADAIK, 

Eiglith Covernor of Kentucky. 



The Battle of New Orleans 113 

Jackson, General Morgan, and Commodore Patterson, impu- 
ting cowardice to a few of their comrades, had touched a 
sensitive chord and sunk deep into the hearts of the 
Kentucky troops in the army. In their resentments, 
expressed in words and sometimes in actions, all danger 
from the enemy being over, they were perhaps not always 
so orderly as soldiers should be while in camp, or on scout 
or picket service. 

In the closing correspondence, the language used by 
both Jackson and Adair became exceedingly bitter; that 
of the foi-mer beyond all restraint toward his respondent. 
The issue of this controversy, tradition says, was a chal- 
lenge to meet upon the field of honor, then so called, and 
to settle it at the pistol's point. The challenge was 
accepted. By whom it was sent, the author has not 
been able to learn. In the absence of any record, written 
or in print, of this affair, he has to rely upon oral recitals 
which have come down through members of the Adair 
family in Kentucky, and are remembered in the main 
facts to-day. The would-be combatants met by appoint- 
ment at a spot selected on the border line of their respec- 
tive States, accompanied each by his second, his surgeon, 
and a few invited friends. The unfriendly breach between 
Jackson and Adair, and its possible tragic issue, seems 
to have given deep concern to some of their friends. 



114 The Battle of New Orleans 

There was no other cause of enmity between them save 
what grew out of the unfortunate occurrences at New 
Orleans. They were of the same pohtical party — Jef- 
fersonian Repubhcans, as they were known then, in dis- 
tinction from Federahsts. Jackson had won renown 
and prestige as no other in America, and his name had 
already been mentioned in connection with the highest 
office within the gift of the people. Adair was held in 
high esteem by the people of Kentucky, and bright hopes 
of political preferment were held out by his party friends. 
Other considerations added, induced friends on either 
side to urge a reconciliation, which was happily effected 
on terms mutually satisfactory. The above account of 
this meeting on the field of honor was related to the 
author by General D. L. Adair, of Hawesville, Ken- 
tucky, now long past his fourscore years. He gave the 
facts to the writer, he said, as he received them from 
his father. Doctor Adair, of Hardin County, Kentucky, 
many years ago. Doctor Adair was a cousin of General 
Adair, of Jackson's army, and was one of the intimate 
friends whom the General invited to be present upon the 
ground. 

The correspondence of Jackson and Adair throws 
light upon the subject of this controversy, and reveals 
to us some of the causes of the errors and contentions of 



The Battle of New Orleans 115 

this afifair. We have mentioned that Adair, in his eager- 
ness to arm as many as possible of the Kentucky mihtia 
and place them in line for the main battle of the eighth, 
went into the city and plead with the Committee of 
Safety to loan him four hundred stand of arms, held in the 
city armory for the protection of New Orleans, for a few 
days. This urgent request was granted, and the amis 
privately moved out, hauled to the camp of the Kentuck- 
ians, and delivered there about nightfall of the seventh. 
Four hundred more of the Kentuckians were thus armed 
and moved up to the rear of the breastwork, ready for 
the battle next morning. Adair believed that he was 
acting in the line of his duty, and that Jackson would 
approve of his device for arming more of his idle men 
in camp. Busy as he was that day in New Orleans, and 
in equipping and marshaling the men of his command 
for battle, he was not made aware of the urgent need of 
reinforcements on the opposite bank of the river, nor 
did he know of the purpose of the commander-in-chief 
to arm these from the city armory. While Adair's device 
very much strengthened Jackson's line on the left bank, 
it unfortunately defeated Jackson's plan of sending four 
hundred more men to reinforce General Morgan on the 
right bank, and may in this way have largely contributed 
to the latter 's defeat. 



ii6 The Battle of New Orleans 

When Jackson, late on the seventh, ordered a detail 
of five hundred of the Kentucky militia to be marched 
at once to New Orleans, there to be armed, to cross the 
river and report by daylight to General Morgan, he 
expected to use the arms from the city annory. There 
was no other supply. 

We may readily imagine the feeling of disappointed 
chagrin and passion that stirred to its depths the strong 
nature of Jackson, when the intelligence quickly came 
to him across the river of the disaster to Morgan's com- 
mand, and of its retreat toward New Orleans, followed 
by the enemy. It was in this tumult of passion and 
excitement that the report of Morgan, followed by that 
of Patterson, was brought to him, imputing the cause 
of defeat and disaster to the cowardly retreat of the Ken- 
tucky detachment. Under the promptings of these 
incidents of the day, Jackson's report to the Secretary 
of War was made, in which the words of censiu-e were 
so unjustly employed. Jackson must have infonned 
Morgan on the evening of the seventh that he would 
reinforce him with five hundred armed soldiers. When 
Colonel Davis reported to Morgan, one hour before day- 
light, the arrival of the Kentucky contingent, the latter 
was expecting five hundred men to reinforce him. Had 
this been done, the Kentucky trOops and Major Aniaud's 



The Battle of New Orleans 117 

one hundred and fifty Louisianians would have made 
the forces sent to the front to check the advance of the 
British under Colonel Thornton over six hundred men. 
Such a force, well officered, would probably have held 
the enemy in check, fallen back in good order, and made 
a stubborn fight on the line of battle. But there was only 
one third the Kentucky force expected; and when Major 
Amaud's command retreated, there was but this con- 
tingent of one hundred and seventy Kentucky militia 
left to resist the advance of one thousand British veterans, 
and to meet their main assault on the center and right 
of the long hne of battle. It made its march from New 
Orleans at midnight, and was reported to General Mor- 
gan before daybreak. These facts give a more intelli- 
gible view of the plan of battle arranged by this officer. 
It was undoubtedly marred and broken up by the unfore- 
seen incidents mentioned, unfortunately for General Mor- 
gan and for the American cause. Commodore Patter- 
son, in his report to the Secretary of the Navy, five days 
after the battle, makes the force of Kentucky militia 
that gave way before the British four hundred men, 
more than double the real number; thus showing the 
error prevalent. 

When the facts came out that General Adair had 
secured the four hundred stand of city arms for his own 



ii8 The Battle of New Orleans 

immediate command with which Jackson had designed to 
ann the reinforcement for General Morgan, the incident 
was naturally very irritating to the Commander-in-chief. 
It was imputed as a cause, in part, of the defeat and 
disaster on the right bank. Jackson seems to have 
complained to Adair that the latter ought to have known 
of his order to call out the detachment of five hundred 
Kentuckians in time, and of his intention to ami them 
in the city. Adair replied that the order came to Gen- 
eral Thomas, in chief command of the Kentuckians, 
lying ill in camp, while he was busily engaged in New 
Orleans and at the front, preparing his own command 
for battle next day; that he did not know of the inten- 
tion of Jackson to use the city amis until too late to 
repair the mistake. It made up a chapter of accidents 
and errors, happening with best intentions. As for the 
little body of Kentucky militia, who were made sensa- 
tionally notorious, where there was honor and fame for 
no one, poorly amied and wearied with fasting and a 
heavy all-night march, they did as well as troops could 
do. It is doubtful if any one hundred and seventy 
troops in Jackson's amiy would have done better. Un- 
supported, and attacked and flanked by four times their 
own number, no troops could have held their ground 
longer. 



The Battle of New Oy leans 119 

In the possession of Judge William H. Seymour, of 
New Orleans, is an original letter of Major Latour, 
addressed to General Morgan in anticipation of the pub- 
lication of his " Historical Memoirs of the War of 18 12-15," 
advising him that he would give an account also of the 
military situation and battle on the west bank, as he 
viewed them; and inviting any statement from General 
Morgan in his own vindication that he might choose to 
make. This letter is not printed in the history, but was 
seen and copied by the author, through the courtesy of 
Judge Seymour, who is a lineal descendant of a sister of 
Andrew Jackson. A diligent inquiry was made by the 
writer of this monograph for a copy of General Morgan's 
report, and also of letters or documents from him in 
vindication of his course in the affairs mentioned. If 
any such are in print, or otherwise preserved, the author 
did not succeed in finding them, to his regret. 

New Orleans, La., April, 1815. 
To General DAvm Morgan. 

Sir: I send you herewith a copy of the publication that I 
am preparing for the press, upon the last campaign, relating 
to the transaction that took place on the right bank, on the 
8th of January. 

As I am of opinion that you are to bear the blame of our 
disgrace on that part of our defense, I thought myself in duty 



I20 The Battle of New Orleans 

bound, as a man of honor, to participate to you what I wrote 
on the subject previous to my putting it to the press. What 
I have stated is, I beUeve, strictly true; however, sir, you 
are in a situation to furnish me with such observations as 
may tend to rectify what should not be printed, in its true 
light. 

Be persuaded, sir, that I have no enmity against you; on 
the contrary, as a private citizen, I have the regard for you 
that I think you deserve. Then I hope you will not take my 
conscientious caution in a bad part, and that you will direct 
to me in Philadelphia, where I am departing for in a day or 
two, anything you will choose to write for your vindication. 
It will find room in the appendix, at all events, should it be 
founded upon proper authorities. 

I remain, sir, your most respectful servant, 

A. Lacarriere Latour. 

Incidental prominence has been given to this episode of 
the battle of the eighth, on the west bank of the river, 
far beyond its real merits as an event of the military oper- 
ations around New Orleans. Worse panic and confusion 
resulted among the American militia at Bladensburg, 
in front of Washington, and at other places, during the 
War of 1812-15, and passed into history without unusual 
criticism, as incidents common to warfare. But the 
injustice done to the little band of Kentucky militia, 
imputing to them cowardly conduct, on the part of some 
of the highest officials of the army, aroused a spirit of 



The Battle of New Orleans 121 

indignant protest that echoed far and wide, and would 
not down. Had it not been for the misleading report 
of General Morgan, followed by that of Commodore Pat- 
terson, and prompting that of General Jackson to the 
Secretary of War, saying that "the Kentuckians inglo- 
riously fled," and imputing blame to no other party, the 
incident of the battle and defeat would have been men- 
tioned and passed without comment. 

The Covert Retreat of the British. 

The battles of the eighth were decisive of the cam- 
paign, and of the War of 181 2-1 5, so far as military oper- 
ations were concerned. The British had been beaten in 
generalship and beaten upon the field of battle, until 
they were made to feel and to confess to defeat so crush- 
ing as to leave no hope of retrieving disaster. Within 
fifteen days after landing, they had sustained losses equal 
to one third of their entire army of invasion. With 
prestige gone and spirit broken, and their ranks shat- 
tered, there was but one thing left to do. To cover their 
retreat and get safely back to their ships before the broken 
remnants of their army were made to capitulate by sur- 
render became a matter of gravest concern. The situ- 
ation is set forth in the following official letter to the 
Secretary of War: 



122 The Battle of New Orleans 

Camp Below New Orleans, January 19, 1815. 
Sir: Last night, at 12 o'clock, the enemy precipitately 
decamped and returned to his boats, leaving behind him, under 
medical attendance, eighty of his wounded, fourteen pieces 
of heavy artillery, and a quantity of ammunition. Such was 
the situation of the ground he abandoned, and that through 
which he retired, protected by canals, redoubts, intrench- 
ments, and swamps on his right and the river on his left, that 
I could not, without great risk, which true policy did not seem 
to require, much annoy him on his retreat. 

Whether it is the purpose of the enemy to renew his efforts 
at some other point, or not, I can not certainly determine. In 
my own mind, however, there is little doubt that his last exer- 
tions have been made in this quarter, at least for the present 
season. In this belief I am strengthened by the prodigious 
losses he has sustained at the position he has just quitted, 
and by the failure of his fleet to pass Fort St. Philip. His loss 
on this ground, since the debarkation of his troops, as stated 
by the last prisoners and deserters, and as confirmed by many 
additional circumstances, must have exceeded four thousand 
men. We succeeded on the 8th, in getting from the enemy 
about one thousand stand of arms of various kinds. 

Since the action of the 8th, the enemy have been allowed 
but very little respite, my artillery from both sides of the 
river being constantly employed until the hour of their de- 
parture, in annoying them. They were permitted to find no 
rest. 

I am advised by Major Overton, who commands at Fort 
St, Philip, in a letter of the i8th, that the enemy having bom- 
barded his fort for nine days, with thirteen-inch mortars, with- 



The Battle of New Orleans 123 

out effect, had on the morning of that day retired. I have 
little doubt that he would have sunk their vessels had they 
attempted to nan by. 

Do not think me too sanguine in the belief that Louisiana 
is now clear of the enemy. I need not assure you, however, 
that wherever I command, such a belief shall never occasion 
any relaxation in the measures for resistance. I am but too 
sensible that while the enemy is opposing us, is not the most 
proper time to provide for them. On the i8th, our prisoners 
on shore were delivered to us, an exchange having been agreed 
to. I shall have on hand an excess of several hundred. 
I have the honor to be, &c., 

Andrew Jackson, 

Co mm an tier- in- C/tief. 

The losses to the American army, in the five battles 
fought from the twenty-third of December to the eighth 
of January, inclusive, are summarized in the report of 
the Adjutant-general, which we give: 

Camp Below New Orleans, Jan'y 16, 1815. 
Sir: I enclose for the information of the War Department, 
a report of the killed, wounded, and missing, of the army under 
Major-general Jackson, in the different actions with the enemy 
since their landing. Rob't Butler, 

Adjutant- General. 

BATTLE. Killed. Wounded. Missing. 

December 23d 24 nj ^^ 

December 28th g g None. 

January ist 11 23 None. 

January 8th 13 35 jg 

57 185 93 



1 24 The Battle of New Orleans 

A total of three hundred and thirty-five men. This 
includes the killed, wounded, and missing in the two 
battles on the eighth. 

Our English authorities are so marked with exagger- 
ations and discrepancies as to numbers in either army, 
and also as to losses and casualties, that they are unre- 
liable. There is with nearly all their writers, and in the 
reports of their officers, a disposition to minimize num- 
bers on their own side, and to overstate those on the side 
of the Americans. This was no doubt due to a sense of 
mortified pride and deep chagrin over their repeated 
defeats and final expulsion from the country, under 
humiliations such as English armies and navies had rarely 
before known in history. General Jackson was not far 
wrong in estimating the entire losses of the British, dur- 
ing the two weeks of invasion, at more than four thousand 
men. If the large number who deserted from their ranks 
after the battles of the eighth of January be included, 
the excess would doubtless swell the numbers much above 
four thousand. Their killed, wounded, and missing on 
the eighth approximated three thousand. So decimated 
and broken up were their columns that they dared not 
risk another battle. 



The Battle of New Orleans 125 

Repulse of the British Fleet before Fort St. Philip. 

On the first of January, Major W. H. Overton, in 
command of Fort St. Philip, which guards the passage of 
the Mississippi River from its mouth for the protection of 
New Orleans, received information that the enemy intended 
to capture or pass the fort, to cooperate with their land 
forces threatening the city. On the seventh, a fleet of 
two bomb-vessels, one sloop, one brig, and one schooner 
appeared and anchored below the fortification and began 
an attack. For nine days they continued a heavy bom- 
bardment from four large sea-mortars and other ordnance, 
but without the effect they desired. Making but little 
impression toward destroying the fort, and fearing to risk 
an attempt finally to pass our batteries, the fleet with- 
drew on the morning of the eighteenth, and passed again 
mto the Gulf. Our loss in this affair was but two killed 
and seven woimded. During the nine days of attack 
the enemy threw more than one thousand bombs from 
four ten- and thirteen-inch mortars, besides many shells 
and round shot from howitzers and cannon. 

An English Soldier's View of Defeat. 

A graphic pen-picture of the chaotic and wretched 
condition of the English army after the crushing defeat 



126 The Battle of Neiu Orleans 

of the eighth, and until its final return to the fleet, is 
given by Gleig in his "Narrative of the Campaigns." 
It will be read with all the more interest because it is 
the frank admission of a brave though prejudiced officer, 
giving an enemy's view of the great disaster that befell 
the British arms, in which he fully shared: 

General Lambert prudently determined not to risk the 
safety of his army by another attempt upon works evidently 
so much beyond our strength. He considered that his chances 
of success were in every respect lessened by the late repulse. 
An extraordinary degree of confidence was given to the enemy, 
while our forces were greatly diminished in numbers. If again 
defeated, nothing could save our army from destruction; it 
could only now retreat in force. A retreat, therefore, was 
resolved upon while the measure appeared practicable, and 
toward that end all our futiu-e operations were directed. 

One great obstacle existed; by what road were the troops 
to travel to regain the fleet? On landing, we had taken advan- 
tage of the bayou, and thus come within two miles of the cul- 
tivated coiintry, in our barges. To return by the same route 
was impossible. In spite of our losses there were not enough 
boats to transport above one half of the army at one time. 
If we separated, the chances were that both divisions would 
be destroyed; for those embarked might be intercepted, and 
those left behind might be attacked by the whole American 
army. To obviate the difficulty, it required that we should 
build a passable road through the swamp, to Lake Borgne, 
some twenty miles away. The task was burthened with 



The Battle of Neiu Orleans 127 

innumerable difficulties. There was no firm foundation on 
which to work, and no trees to assist in forming hurdles. All 
we could do was to bind together large quantities of swamp 
weeds and lay them across the quagmire. It was but the 
semblance of a road, without firmness and soHdity. 

To complete this road, bad as it was, occupied nine days, 
during which our army lay in camp, making no attempt to 
molest the enemy. The Americans, however, were not so 
inactive. A battery of six guns, mounted on the opposite 
bank, kept up a continued fire upon our men. The same mode 
of proceeding was adopted in front, and thus, night and day 
we were harassed by danger, against which there was no forti- 
fying ourselves. Of the extreme unpleasantness of our situ- 
ation, it is hardly possible to convey an adequate conception. 
We never closed our eyes in peace, for we were sure to be awaked 
before the lapse of many minutes, by the splash of a round- 
shot or shell in the mud beside us. Tents we had none, but 
lay some in open air, and some in huts of boards, or any mate- 
rial we could procure. From the moment of our landing, De- 
cember 23d, not a man had undressed, except to bathe ; many 
had worn the same shirt for weeks. Hea\^ rains now set 
in, with violent storms of thunder and lightning, and keen frosts 
at night. Thus we were wet all day, and nearly frozen at 
night. With our outposts there was constant skirmishing. 
Every day they were attacked by the Americans, and com- 
pelled to maintain their ground by dint of hard fighting. No 
one but those who belonged to this army can form a notion 
of the hardships it endured, and the fatigue it undenvent. 

Nor were these the only evils which tended to lessen our 
numbers. To otir soldiers every inducement was held out by 



128 The Battle of New Orleans 

the enemy to desert. Printed papers, offering lands and money 
as the price of desertion, were thrown into the pickets, while 
individuals would persuade our sentinels to quit their stations. 
It could not be expected that bribes so tempting would always 
be refused. Many desertions began daily to take place, and 
ere long became so frequent, that the evil rose to be of a serious 
nature. In the course of a week, many men quitted their 
colors, and fled to the enemy. 

Meanwhile, the wounded, except such as were too severely 
hurt to be removed, were embarked in the boats and sent off 
to the fleet. Next followed the baggage and stores, with the 
civil officers, cominissaries, and purveyors; and last of all 
such of the light artillery as could be drawn without risk of 
discovery. But of the heavy artillery, no account was taken. 
It was determined to leave them behind, retaining their sta- 
tions. By the 17th, no part of the forces was left in camp 
but the infantry. On the evening of the i8th, it also began 
the retreat. Trimming the fires, and arranging all in the order 
as if no change were to take place, regiment after regiment 
stole away, as soon as darkness concealed their motions, leav- 
ing the pickets to follow as a rear guard, with injunctions not 
to retire till daylight appeared. Profound silence was main- 
tained; not a man opened his mouth, except to issue neces- 
sary orders in a whisper. Not a cough or any other noise 
was to be heard from the head to the rear of the column. Even 
the steps of the soldiers were planted with care, to prevent the 
slightest echo. Nor was this precaution unnecessary. In spite 
of every endeavor to the contrary, a rumor of our intention 
had reached the Americans; for we found them of late very 
watchful and prying. 



TJie Battle of New Orleans 129 

While our route lay alongside the river, the march was 
agreeable enough, but as soon as we entered the marsh, all 
comfort was at an end. Our roadway, constructed of materials 
so slight, and resting on a foundation so infirm, was trodden 
to pieces by the first corps. Those who followed were compelled 
to flounder on the best way they could. By the time the rear 
of the column gained the morass, all trace of a way had dis- 
appeared. Not only were the reeds torn asunder and sunk 
by the pressure of those in front, but the bog itself was trodden 
into the consistency of mud. Every step sunk us to the knees, 
and sometimes higher. Near the ditches, we had the utmost 
difficulty in crossing at all. There being no Hght, except what 
the stars supplied, it was difficult to select our steps, or follow 
those who called to us that they were safe on the other side. 
At one of those ditches, I myself beheld an unfortunate wretch 
gradually sink until he totally disappeared. I saw him 
flounder, heard his cry for help, and ran forward with the inten- 
tion of saving him; but before I had taken a second step, I 
myself sunk to my breast in the mire. How I kept from 
smothering is more than I can tell, for I felt no solid bottom 
under me, and sank slowly deeper and deeper, till the mud 
reached my arms. Instead of rescuing the poor soldier, I was 
forced to beg assistance for myself. A leathern canteen strap 
being thrown to me, I laid hold of it, and was dragged out, 
just as my fellow-sufferer was buried alive, and seen no more. 

All night we continued our journey, toiling and struggling 
through this temble quagmire; and in the morning reached 
the Fishermen's Huts, mentioned before as standing on the 
brink of Bayou Bienvenue, near Lake Borgne. The site is 
as complete a desert as the eye of man was ever pained by 



I30 The Battle of Nezu Oy leans 

beholding. Not a tree or a bush grew near. As far as the 
eye could reach, an ocean of weeds covering and partially hid- 
ing the swamp presented itself, except on the side where a view 
of the Lake changed, without fertihzing, the prospect. Here 
we were ordered to halt; and perhaps I never rejoiced more 
sincerely at any order than at this. Wearied with my exer- 
tions, and oppressed with want of sleep, I threw myself on the 
chilly ground, without so much as pulling off my muddy gar- 
ments; in an instant all my cares and troubles were forgotten. 
After many hours, I awoke from that sleep, cold and stiff, 
and creeping beside a miserable fire of weeds, devoured the 
last morsal of salt pork my wallet contained. 

The whole army having come up, formed along the brink 
of the Lake; a line of outposts was planted, and the soldiers 
commanded to make themselves as comfortable as possible. 
But there was little comfort. Without tents or shelter of any 
kind, our bed was the morass, and our sole covering the clothes 
which had not quitted our backs for a month. Our fires, so 
necessary to a soldier's happiness, were composed solely of 
weeds, which blazed up and burned out hke straw, imparting 
but little warmth. Above all, our provisions were expended, 
with no way to replenish in reach. Our sole dependence was 
the fleet, nearly one hundred miles away, at anchor. It was 
necessary to wait until our barges could make the trip there, 
and return. For two entire days, the only provisions issued 
to the troops were some crumbs of biscuit and a small allow- 
ance of rum. As for myself, being fond of hunting, I deter- 
mined to fare better. I took a fire-lock and went in pursuit 
of wild ducks, of which there seemed plenty in the bog. I was 
fortunate enough to kill several, but they fell in the water, 



The Battle of New Or leans 131 

about twenty yards out. There was no other alternative. 
Pulling off my clothes, and breaking the thin ice, I waded 
out and got my game, and returned to shore, shivering like an 
aspen. As I neared the shore, my leg stuck fast in the mire, 
and in pulling it out my stocking came off, a loss that gave me 
great discomfort, until we went aboard the fleet. I request that 
I may not be sneered at when I record this loss of my stocking 
as one of the disastrous consequences of this ill-fated expedition. 
As the boats returned, regiment after regiment set sail 
for the fleet. But, the wind being foul, many days elapsed 
before all could be got off. By the end of January, we were 
all once more on board our former ships. But our return was 
far from triumphant. We, who only seven weeks ago had set 
out in the surest confidence of glory, and I may add, of emolu- 
ment, were brought back dispirited and dejected. Our ranks 
were woefully thinned, our chiefs slain, our clothing tattered 
and filthy, and our discipline in some degree injured. A 
gloomy silence reigned throughout the armament, except 
when it was broken by the voice of lamentation over fallen 
friends. The interior of each ship presented a scene well cal- 
culated to prove the misadventures of human hope and human 
prudence. On reaching the fleet, we found that a splendid 
regiment, the 40th Foot, of one thousand men, had just arrived 
to reinforce us, ignorant of the fatal issue of our attack. But 
the coming of thrice their number could not recover what was 
lost, or recall the fateful past. There was no welcome, nor 
rejoicing; so great was the despondency that no attention 
was given to the event. A sullen indifference as to what might 
happen next seemed to have succeeded all our wonted curi- 
osity, and confidence of success in every undertaking. 



132 The Baffle of New Orleans 

On the 4th of February, the fleet weighed anchor and set 
sail, though detained by adverse winds near the shore of Cat 
Island until the yth, when it put to sea. Our course, towards 
the east, led to the conjecture that we were steering towards 
Mobile. Nor was it long before we came in sight of the bay 
which bears that name. 

Second Attack on Fort Bowyer, Mobile Bay. 

So great and so repeated had been the reverses of the 
British arms, that an opportunity to retrieve lost prestige, 
even in a small degree, could not well be permitted to pass 
unimproved. The great flotilla of sixty vessels, with the 
fragments of the shattered army, which set sail with 
flags and pennants gayly flying in the breeze from Negril 
Bay, Jamaica, but a little over two months ago, was still 
a power upon the sea, at a safe distance from Jackson's 
triumphant army. The little outpost of a fort that 
guarded Mobile Bay, which had inflicted a heavy loss 
on, and beaten off, a squadron of the enemy's ships a 
few months before, lay in their path homeward, and it 
was determined to invest it, and to overwhelm it with 
numbers. On the sixth of February, the great amia- 
ment appeared in sight of Dauphin Island. On the 
seventh, twenty-five ships anchored in a crescent position 
extending from the island toward Mobile Point, where 
stood the fort. On the morning of the eighth, the enemy 



The Battle of New Orleans 133 

landed five thousand troops opposite the Hne of ships at 
anchor, investing the fort b_y sea and land. The fortifi- 
cation was erected for defense mainly on the sea side, 
to render it formidable to ships attempting to enter the 
pass into Mobile Bay. On the land side was a sandy 
plain, rendering it incapable of defense against a superior 
force protected by extensive siege works. The enemy 
mounted a number of batteries behind parapets and 
epaulements, which directed their fire upon the weakest 
parts of the defense. The fort was gallantly defended 
by a garrison of three hundred and fifty men, tinder com- 
mand of Colonel William Lawrence. Some losses were 
inflicted on the besiegers as they continued to push their 
works to within short musket-range of the fort. But 
the heavy cannonading and fire from small - arms 
encircled the besieged from every direction, and further 
defense became hopeless. Terms of surrender were agreed 
to on the eleventh, and on the twelfth the garrison 
marched out with the honors of war, yielding possession 
to the enemy. 

Negotiations for Pe.\ce Concluded on the 24TH 
OF December, 1814. 

The small victory at Mobile Bay was barren of any 
gain to the British cause; for, on the fourteenth, two 



134 The Battle of Nc7v Orleans 

days after the surrender, intelligence came from Eng- 
land to General Lambert that articles of peace had been 
signed by the plenipotentiaries of the belligerent nations, 
in session at Ghent. Gleig remarks, in his "Narrative": 
"With the reduction of this trifling work ended all hos- 
tilities in this quarter of America; for the army had 
scarcely reassembled, when intelligence arrived from Eng- 
land of peace. The news reached us on the fourteenth, 
and I shall not deny that it was received with much satis- 
faction." 

On the nineteenth. General Jackson issued an address 
from headquarters, from which we reproduce as follows: 
"The flag- vessel, which was sent to the enemy's fleet 
at Mobile, has returned, and brings with it intelligence, 
extracted from a London paper, that on the twenty- 
fourth of December articles of peace were signed by the 
commissioners of the two nations." 

Thus, on the day after the first landing of the British 
anny on Louisiana soil, and after the first battle was 
fought at night, terms of peace were agreed on. It was 
fifteen days after that auspicious event until the battles 
on the eighth occun-ed, causing such disaster and loss of 
valuable lives to the English army and nation; and fifty- 
two days from the signing of articles until a message of 
the good news was received by the commander-in-chief 



The Battle of New Orleans 135 

of the British forces. There was no alternative but to 
await the slow passage of the ship across the wide Atlantic, 
with sails set to breeze and calm, and sometimes tossed 
and delayed by adverse storm. To-day, the news of 
such an event would be flashed over the great cables 
under the sea and the network of electric wires through- 
out the land, in the twinkling of an eye after its occur- 
rence. Such an advantage at the time would have been 
worth to England the entire cost of the telegraph system 
of the world. 

Legislature Suppressed Under Martial Law — 
Charges of Treasonable Utterances.- 

On the morning of the twenty-eighth of December, 
just as the British began their attack on the American 
line. General Jackson issued an order forcibly forbidding 
the meeting of the Legislature in session, and for taking 
possession of the legislative halls. The proceeding created 
great excitement in the civil and military circles of the 
city, especially among the members of the body and their 
immediate friends. The author is indebted to Mr. 
William Beer, of the Howard Library of New Orleans, 
for the loan of a copy of a rare little book entitled 
" Report of the Committee of Inquiry on the Military 
Measures Employed Against the Legislature of the State 



136 The Battle of Axiv Orleans 

of Louisiana, the 28th of December, 18 14." In the full 
report of the testimony taken by the committee, we 
have a history of the causes which led to this open 
rupture between the commander-in-chief and the General 
Assembly of Louisiana, and of its incidents and issues. 

Since the landing of the British army on the twenty- 
third, there were afloat in nebulous fomi some rumors of 
disaffection toward the American military occupation 
of Louisiana, among an element of the population unfriendly 
to the sovereignty of the United States over the terri- 
tory since its purchase from Napoleon. Up to the time 
of the military occupation under Jackson, this hostile 
feeling seemed to display its temper and policies mainly 
in matters of civil procedure. There was very naturally 
a jealous opposition on the part of many leading citizens, 
of French and Spanish descent, of whom the population 
west of the Mississippi was almost entirely made up, 
against the annexation of the territory east of that river 
as part of Louisiana, on equal terms of citizenship and 
co-sovereignty. This east territory, they felt, had been 
rudely seized and possessed by the United States, against 
the claim and protest of Spain. It was being settled by 
American people, who in time would help to Americanize 
the country, and to lessen the power and control of the 
former creole domination. The virtues of a patriotic 



The Battle of New Orleans 137 

love of their native countries yet lingered in the bosoms 
of these citizens — a patriotic love which, when finally 
transferred to the new government they were under, 
burned as brightly for the new sovereignty as for the old. 
Captain Abner L. Dimcan, aid to Jackson, testified 
before the committee as follows: 

On the 28th, Colonel Declouet (of General Morgan's com- 
mand) coming in haste from the city, joined this respondent 
and begged him to inform General Jackson that a plan was on 
foot among several members of the Legislature for the sur- 
render of the country to the enemy. Colonel Declouet named 
in confidence to myself, to Generals Jackson and Morgan, and 
to Major Robinson, several members as persons determined on 
making the attempt. He added, that he heard one or more 
members say, that Jackson was carrying on a Russian war 
(alluding to the burning of Moscow), and that it was best to 
save private property by a timely surrender; that he, Colonel 
Declouet, had been invited to join in the measure. On this 
respondent making the communication to General Jackson, 
the order he received was: "Tell Governor Claiborne to pre- 
vent this, and to blow them up if they attempt it! " 

Colonel Declouet told me the plan had been first disclosed 
to him by the Speaker of the House, Mr. Guichard. He said 
in presence of General Jackson and Mr. Daresac, that many 
other influential men were concerned in it, and that they had 
held several night or secret meetings on the subject. He gave 
the names of Mr. John Blanque and Mr. Marigny, and generally 
all those voting with Mr. Blanque in the House. He stated 



138 The Battle of New Orleans 

that, as an inducement offered to unite in the plan, he was 
informed by Mr. Guichard that General Jackson would burn 
and destroy everything before him sooner than surrender the 
country, and that the English would respect private property. 
I understood also, from some members of the House, Mr. Har- . 
per and Mr. Fickland among them, and in the Senate from 
General Morgan and Mr. Hireart, that an attempt would be 
made to dismember the State. I also understood from other 
members that they would consider it an act of violence; and 
would resist it by violence. 

Colonel Declouet was the chief infomiant at head- 
quarters; but rumors had been rife for several days of 
disloyal utterances and of mysterious proceedings, which 
caused uneasiness to the civil and military authorities, 
and especially to Governor Claiborne, who had made 
known his apprehensions of trouble from the disaffected 
element, warning General Jackson of the dangers possible 
from this quarter. The Legislature was to convene on 
the twenty-eighth; and it was intimated that the over- 
ture for a sun-ender might be resolved upon that day. 
Such a possible action, in the very crisis of battle, could 
be but an attempt to marplot the military plans of the 
commander-in-chief, and to marshal an enemy in the rear. 
The information brought in so abruptly on that morning 
by Colonel Declouet made a profound impression on the 
mind of General Jackson. The enemy had already 



The Battle of Neiv Orleans 139 

opened the battle of the twenty-eighth of December, with 
the forward movement of his columns and under the 
heavy fire of his batteries. 

In the excitement of the moment, Jackson gave the 
verbal order to his aid. Captain Duncan, to be delivered 
at once to Governor Claiborne for immediate execution. 
This order, as rendered by Captain Duncan, directed the 
Governor to summarily close the halls of the Legislature, 
and to place a guard at the doors to prevent a meeting 
of the body until further orders. Duncan testified that 
the General put in emphasis the words: "Tell Governor 
Claiborne to prevent this, and to blow them up if they 
attempt it ! " 

The order was executed. The Governor commissioned 
General J. B. Labitat, of the Louisiana troops, to enforce 
it ; he placed a guard of soldiers at the doors of the build- 
ing, and forbade entrance to the members on that day. 
Captain Duncan had put spurs to his horse and started 
on a lope to the city with the order. On the way he met 
Colonel Fortier, an aid to the Governor, who consented 
to promptly deliver the order, permitting Duncan to 
return. In the proceedings of the committee. Honorable 
Levi Wells, member of the House of Representatives 
from Rapides Parish, testified that on the twenty-eighth, 
under an order of General Jackson, an armed guard was 



140 The Battle of New Orleans 

placed at the doors of the legislative halls in the city of 
New Orleans, which was to hinder the members from 
assembling; "and even to fire on them, should they dare 
to persist in their design; and that the life of a repre- 
sentative of the people, and a member of the Body, was 
exposed to the greatest danger; that a sentinel, to hinder 
him from repairing to his post, presented his bayonet 
and threatened to run him through with it, unless 
he retired, adding to this outrage the most insulting 
tone." 

Through the mediation of friendly counsel the views 
of both the civil and military chiefs were modified. The 
order was revoked within twenty-four hours, and the 
guards withdrawn; on the twenty-ninth, the Legislature 
was permitted to convene. In the conclusion, the com- 
mittee exonerated Speaker Guichard and other members 
of the Legislature referred to as under suspicion, and 
severely censured Colonel Declouet and Captain Duncan 
as the indiscreet authors of all the trouble. The measures 
taken by General Jackson and Governor Claiborne were 
effectual; while the report of the committee was evi- 
dently drawn to modify and explain the imputed indis- 
cretions of some of their fellow-members who had been 
compromised. The procedure did not include all the 
legislators; for some of these had volunteered their 



The Battle of New Orleans 141 

sei-vices, shouldered their muskets, and gone to the 
front of battle. 

A feeling of keen resentment toward General Jackson 
and some officers involved in this affair was nursed long 
after by these legislators. After peace was assured and 
hostilities at an end, the Legislature voted a resolution 
of thanks for valiant services in defense of Louisiana to 
the officers and soldiers from the States of Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Mississippi, with the request to the Gov- 
ernor that he should convey the sense of this resolution 
in appropriate teiTns in a letter each to the officers in com- 
mand of these troops, respectively. The resolution was 
as follows: 

Resolved, That the thanks of the General Assembly be pre- 
sented, in the name of the State, to our brave brother soldiers 
from Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Mississippi Territory, 
and their gallant leaders. Generals Coffee, Carroll, Thomas, 
Adair, and Colonel Hinds, for the brilliant share they have 
had in the defense of this country and the happy harmony 
they have maintained with the inhabitants and militia of the 
State. Magloire Guichard, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
FULWAR SkIPWORTH, 

President of Senate. 

Approved, February 2d, 1815. 

Wm. C. Claiborne, 

Governor of State. 



142 The Battle of New Orleans 

The great chieftain could well afford to pass the slight 
in silence, hailed as he was by the acclamations of the 
multitude — the deliverer of the country, and the hero of 
the nation! 

A similar resolution of thanks was voted to the officers 
and troops of Louisiana, who had so patriotically sprung 
to arms on the invasion of the enemy, and who had so 
gallantly fought in the several battles of the campaign. 
In this resolution separate mention was made of each 
of the officers of the State troops and their several com- 
mands, reciting the meritorious services they had ren- 
dered, in terms of special praise, making exceptions of 
certain officers who had incurred the displeasure of some 
of the honorable legislators. 

Under the first resolution, letters were addressed each 
to Generals Coffee and Carroll, of Tennessee, to Major 
Hinds, of Mississippi, and to Generals Thomas and Adair, 
of Kentucky. As these letters are of similar tenor, we 
quote only the con-espondence with General Adair: 

New Orle.\ns, February 25th, 1815. 
Sir: To a soldier who has done his duty in all the conflicts 
in which his country has been involved, from the War of 
Independence to the present moment, it must be matter of 
great exultation to notice the valor and firmness of the children 
of his old friends; to be convinced that they are the true 



The Battle of New Orleans 143 

descendants of the old stock. That the young men of your 
brigade should have looked up to you in the hour of battle, 
as their guide and their shield, is only a continuation of that 
confidence which their fathers had in a chief whose arm had 
so often, and so successfully, been raised against the foe. The 
enclosed Resolution of the General Assembly of Louisiana 
will show you the high sense which is entertained in this State 
of your services and of those of your brothers in arms. Be 
towards them the vehicle of our sentiments, and receive for 
yourself the assurances of my respect and best wishes. 

Wm. C. C. Claiborne, 

Goziernot of Louisiana. 

To General John Adair. 

The response of General Adair: 

Gov. Wm. C. C. Claiborne. 

Sir: I have the honor of acknowledging the receipt of Your 
Excellency's note, inclosing a Resolution of the Legislature 
of Louisiana, generously awarding the thanks of the State 
to the militia from her sister States, who aided in the late suc- 
cessful struggle to expel a powerful invading enemy from her 
shores. 

To a proud American, citizen or soldier, the consciousness 
of having faithfully discharged his duty to his comitry must 
ever be his highest and most lasting consolation. But when 
to this is added the approbation, the gratitude of the wisest, 
the most respectable part of the community, with whom and 
under whose eye it has been his fortune to act, it will ever be 
esteemed, not only the highest reward for his services, but 
the most powerful incentive to his futtire good conduct. 



144 The Battle of New Orleans 

Accept, sir, for the Legislature, my warmest acknowledg- 
ments for the honorable mention they have made of the corps 
to which I belong, and for yourself the esteem and respect 
so justly due from me, for your polite and highly interesting 
note of communication; and my best wishes for your health 
and happiness. John Adair. 

General Jackson — Clash with the Court. 

A member of the Legislature, Mr. Loillier, severely 
censured the commander-in-chief for continuing New 
Orleans and vicinity under martial law after the defeat 
and embarkation of the British army, and for his arbi- 
trary course in sending a body of Creole troops to a 
remote camp near Baton Rouge, in response to their peti- 
tion for a discharge. Jackson ordered his arrest. Loillier 
applied to Judge Hall, of the United States District Court, 
for a writ of habeas corpus, which was promptly granted 
by the court. General Jackson simimarily ordered the 
arrest of Judge Hall also; and that he and the assembly- 
man both be deported beyond the military lines, as per- 
sons liable to incite insubordination and mutiny within 
the martial jurisdiction. Intelligence of the treaty of 
peace at Ghent soon followed, and martial law once 
again yielded to civil authority. 

Judge Hall, resenting what he deemed a great indignity 
upon the court, issued an order, summoning Jackson 



The Battle of New Orleans 145 

to appear before him to answer a grave charge of con- 
tempt. Jackson's attorney attempted to plead in his 
defense, but the judge silenced him, and set the hearing 
a week after. On the thirty-first of March, Jackson 
appeared in court in person, but refused to be interro- 
gated. As his defense had been denied, he annotmced 
that he was there only to receive the sentence of the 
court. Judge Hall then imposed a fine of one thousand 
dollars, which sum the veteran offender drew from his 
pocket and handed in to the court. 

These proceedings were attended with profound excite- 
ment throughout the city and community. The hero 
of the day had a determined following present in crowds 
at and near the court-room; and among these were the 
Baratarian contingent, with their leaders, and others as 
desperate as these. But the great commander had set 
the example of implicit obedience to the law, and no dis- 
respect to the covirt was shown. But as the General 
sought to retire from the scene, the enthusiasm of the 
crowds overleaped all bounds of propriety. With shouts 
and roars of applause the devoted people lifted him 
in their arms and upon their shoulders, and bore him in 
triiomph through the streets of the city to his headquar- 
ters, despite the chagrin and helpless protestations of the 
victim of their admiration. Tall and gaunt, and angular 



146 The Battle of New Orleans 

in person, with his long, spare Umbs danghng helplessly 
about him, and rocked and swayed by the movement of 
the masses imder him, the great warrior was never in all 
his life before in a position more awkward and undigni- 
fied. The master of men and emergencies was unthroned 
for one time in life. 

The money to pay the fine was proffered over and 
over again to reimburse him by ardent friends, but Jack- 
son would listen to no terms of payment of the fine, except 
out of his own purse. He alone had committed the 
offense — if there was an offense — and he alone would 
' assume to pay the penalty. It was not until 1844, one year 
before his death, that Congress passed an act to refund the 
principal and interest, which amounted then to twenty- 
seven hundred dollars. In advocacy of this bill Stephen 
A. Douglas, then Senator from Illinois, made his maiden 
speech upon the floor of the Senate of the United States. 

England's Purpose to Conquer and Hold Possession 

OF THE Territory Ceded by Napoleon, and 

TO Establish Her Dominion in the 

Mississippi Valley. 

There are evidences that the English Government had 

revived an old dream of conquest and expansion, by 

which she might once again establish dominion west of the 



The Battle of New Orleans 147 

Alleghany Mountains, by the captvire of New Orleans, 
the key to the lower Mississippi Valley. It is a well- 
known fact in history that that government refused to 
recognize the legitimacy of the sale and transfer of the 
Territory of Louisiana by Napoleon to the United States. 
She had looked upon the transaction with a covetous and 
jealous eye, for she had nursed the hope some day of 
adding to her own vast possessions, by conquest or pur- 
chase, not only the domain of Louisiana, but that of 
Florida also. Had it not been that she was engrossed 
with her military and naval forces in the turbulent wars 
in Europe, during the ascendant period of Napoleon, the 
British Government would most probably have employed 
her armies and navies mainly in the accomplishment 
of these aims of territorial aggrandizement. Her invasion 
of the Northwest territory from Canada, at the opening 
of the War of 181 2-1 5, which so disastrously ended with 
the destruction of the British fleet by Commodore Perry 
on Lake Erie, and the annihilation of the British army 
by General Harrison at the battle of the Thames, was 
but an entering wedge to her deep designs. After the 
fall of Napoleon and the pacification of Europe relieved 
her armies and navies of further service on that side of 
the ocean, she, in her pride and insolence, believed that 
she would be invincible in America. Her cherished dream 



148 The Battle of New Orleans 

might now at last be realized by the conquest and per- 
manent possession of Louisiana. We have mentioned 
the significant fact that overtures for peaceful negotia- 
tions had been mutually arranged as early as January, 
1 8 14, and commissioners soon after appointed to meet at 
Ghent. When the capitulation at Paris and the exile of 
Napoleon to Elba occurred within a few brief months, 
repeated excuses for the delay of negotiations by the 
British envoys were made. The United States wanted 
peace on equitable temis, for she had nothing to gain by 
continuing the war. England dallied and delayed; 
meanwhile marshaling her military and naval forces 
for a final crushing blow on her American foe. When 
articles of peace were signed on the twenty-fourth of 
December, the British Government knew that informa- 
tion of the event would not reach the belligerents in the 
Gulf of Mexico until some time in February. But His 
Majesty, the King of England, and his councilors, con- 
fidently believed, as did the officers in command of the 
English army and navy in this expedition, that the vic- 
torious invaders would eat their Christmas dinner in the 
subjugated city of New Orleans, and there to stay. 

Gleig, an educated officer with the army of invasion, 
who became the chief English historian of the campaign, 
in his " Narrative," has to say: 



The Battle of New Orleans 149 

The primary cause of otir defeat may be traced to a source 
more distant than I have mentioned; I mean to the disclosure 
of our designs to the enemy. How this occurred, I shall not 
take upon me to declare; though several rumors bearing at 
least the guise of probability have been circulated. The 
attack on New Orleans was professedly a secret expedition, so 
secret indeed that it was not communicated to the inferior 
officers and soldiers in the armament until immediately pre- 
vious to our quitting Jamaica. To the Americans, however, 
it appears to have been long known before. And hence it 
was that, instead of taking them unawares, we found them 
fully prepared for our reception. That our failure is to be 
lamented no one will deny, since the conquest of New Orleans 
would have been, beyond all comparison, the most valuable acqui- 
sition that could be made to the British dominion throughout the 
whole Western hemisphere. In possession of that post, we should 
have kept the entire Southern trade of the United States in 
check, and furnished means of commerce to our own merchants, 
of incalculable value. 

On the 29th of August, 18 14, Colonel Edward Nichols, 
in command of the land forces quartered in the Spanish 
capital of Pensacola, issued a proclamation, from which 
we quote: 

Natives of Louisiana! On you the first call is made to assist 
in liberating from a faithless, imbecile government, your paternal 
soil. Spaniards, Frenchmen, Italians, and British; whether 
settled, or residing for a time in Louisiana, on you also, I call 
to aid me in this just cause. The American usurpation in this 
coimtry must be abolished, and the lawful owners of the soil 



150 The Battle of New Orleans 

put in possession. I am at the head of a large body of Indians, 
well armed, disciplined, and commanded by British officers, 
a good train of artillery with every requisite, seconded by the 
powerful aid of a numerous squadron of ships. Be assured, 
your property, your laws, the tranquility and peace of your 
country, will be guaranteed to you. Rest assured that these 
brave Indians only burn with an ardent desire of satisfaction 
for the wrongs they have suffered from the Americans, to join 
you in liberating the southern province from their yoke, and 
drive them into the limits formerly prescribed by my sovereign. 
The Indians have pledged themselves not to injure the per- 
sons or properties of any but enemies to their Spanish or Eng- 
Hsh fathers. A flag, Spanish, French, or British, over any 
door, will be a certain protection. 

Inhabitants of Kentucky! You have too long borne with 
grievous impositions. The whole brunt of the war has fallen 
on your brave sons ; be imposed on no longer ; but either range 
yoiu-selves under the standard of your forefathers, or observe 
a strict neutrality. If you comply, whatever provisions you 
send down will be paid for in dollars, and the safety of the 
persons bringing it, as well as the free navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi, will be guaranteed to you. 

Men of Kentucky! Let me call to your minds the con- 
duct of those factions which hurried you into this civil, unjust, 
and unnatural war, at a time when Great Britain was strain- 
ing every nerve in defense of her own, and the liberties of the 
world. Europe is now happy and free, and now hastens justly 
to avenge an unprovoked insult. Accept of my offers; every- 
thing I have promised, I guarantee to you, on the sacred honor 
of a British officer. 



The Battle of New Orleans 151 

We might repeat such evidences of the purposes and 
plans of the expedition to Louisiana. But we will close 
the subject with the impressions of General Jackson 
himself. 

In a contribution to the Philadelphia Times, of the 
ist of November, 1898, Colonel A. C. Buell is authority 
for the following: 

"It was related to me," says Colonel Buell, "by the late 
Governor William Allen, of Ohio, when, as correspondent of 
the Missouri Republican, I visited the venerable statesman 
at his home near Chillicothe, in 1875. After an interview 
on the current political situation. Governor Allen became 
reminiscent. A scrap-book beats the best of memories in the 
world; so I will quote from my scrap-book the exact text of 
this reminiscence. The Governor said: 

"'Shortly after Arkansas was admitted into the Union, 
in 1836, I, being a member of Congress, then called at the White 
House. General Jackson — he always preferred to be called 
General, rather than Mr. President — invited me to lunch 
with him. No sooner were we seated, than he said: Mr. 
Allen, let us take a little drink to the new star in the flag; — 
Arkansas! This ceremony being duly observed, the Gen- 
eral continued: Allen, if there had been disaster, instead of 
victory, at New Orleans, there would never have been a State 
of Arkansas. 

"'This, of course, interested me; and I asked: Why do you 
say that. General? 



152 The Battle of New Orleans 

'"Then he answered that: If Pakenham had taken New 
Orleans, the British would have claimed and held the whole 
of Louisiana Purchase. 

'"But, I said, you know, General Jackson, that the Treaty 
of Ghent, which had been signed fifteen days before the deci- 
sive battle, provided for the restoration of all territory, places 
and possessions, taken by either nation from the other, dur- 
ing the war, with certain unimportant exceptions. 

"'Yes, of course, Jackson replied, but the minutes of the 
conference at Ghent, as kept by Mr. Gallatin, represent the 
British commissioners as declaring in exact words: "We do 
not admit Bonaparte's construction of the law of nations; we 
can not accept it in relation to any subject-matter before us." 

"'At that moment, pursued General Jackson, none of our 
commissioners knew what the real meaning of those words 
was. When they were uttered the British commissioners 
knew that Pakenham's expedition had been decided on ; our 
commissioners did not know it. Now, since I have been Chief 
Magistrate, I have learned, from diplomatic sources of the 
most unquestionable authority, that the British ministry did 
not intend the Treaty of Ghent to apply to the Louisiana Pur- 
chase at all. The whole corporation of them, — Pitt, the Duke 
of Portland, Grenville, Perceval, Lord Liverpool, and Castle- 
reagh, denied in toto the legal right of Napoleon to sell Louis- 
iana to us. They held, therefore, that we had no right to that 
Territory. So you see, Allen, that the words of Mr. Gould- 
bum, on behalf of the British commissioners, which I have 
quoted to you from Albert Gallatin's minutes of the confer- 
ence, had a far deeper significance than our commissioners 
could penetrate. These words were meant to lay the founda- 



The Battle of New Orleans 153 

tion for a claim on the Louisiana Purchase, entirely external 
to the provisions of the Treaty of Ghent. And in that way, the 
British government was signing a treaty with one hand in front, 
whilst the other hand, behind its back, was dispatching Paken- 
ham's army to seize the fairest of our possessions. 

'"You can also see, my dear Allen, said the old General, 
waxing warmer, you can also see what an awful mess such a 
situation would have been, if the British programme had been 
carried out in full. But Providence willed otherwise. All 
the tangled web that the cunning of English diplomacy could 
weave around our unsuspecting commissioners at Ghent was 
torn to pieces, and soaked with British blood, in half an hour, 
at New Orleans, by the never-missing rifles of my Tennessee 
and Kentucky pioneers; and that ended it. British diplo- 
macy could do wonders ; but it could not provide against such 
a contingency as that. Now, Allen, you have the whole story; 
and know why Arkansas was saved to the Union.'" 



Just Like Jackson. 

During the war of 181 2-1 5, the officials of the Eng- 
lish Government, civil and military, distinguished them- 
selves by their haughty arrogance and insulting tone of 
superiority toward the American people; and were, with 
revengeful malice, guilty of vandalism, spoliations, and 
cruelties, which were a disgrace to civilization, not to 
speak of the massacres and butcheries of thousands of 
women and children by the savage Indians, whom they 



154 The Battle of New Orleans 

employed and paid to commit these crimes. Andrew 
Jackson soon put an end to these EngHsh barbarisms 
wherever he commanded the American armies. An inci- 
dent, illustrative of his siimmary methods of dealing with 
the insolence of his enemies in authority, occurred at 
Pensacola. The English fleet and army had come in 
and quartered there in the Spanish capital, with the 
approval and aid of the Spanish governor, though Spain 
was at peace with the United States. The British assured 
him that they would soon be in possession of Louisiana 
and the coast country, and would fully protect the 
Spaniard as an ally and friend. When Jackson marched 
his anny to Pensacola, and sent in a message to the 
governor to expel the British soldiers from the city 
and order their fleet out of the harbor, the reply of 
the Spaniard was truckling to the English in tone and 
evasive and insolent toward the American officer in 
command. General Jackson replied in the following lan- 
guage: 

Your Excellency has been candid enough to admit your 
having supplied the Indians with arms. In addition to this, 
I have learned that a British flag has been seen flying on one 
of your forts. All this is done while you are pretending to be 
neutral. You can not be surprised then; but on the contrary 
will provide a fort in your town for my soldiers and Indians, 
should I take it into my head to pay you a visit. In future. 



The Battle of New Orleans 155 

I beg you to withhold your insulting charges against my gov- 
ernment, for one more inclined to listen to slander than I am ; 
nor consider me any more as a diplomatic character, unless 
so proclaimed to you from the mouths of my cannon. 

The old hero meant all he said; for he marched upon 
the town, forced a surrender, sent the British flying to 
their ships for safety, and compelled the fleet to put 
to sea. 

Humiliation of England. 

No event in the modem history of her military oper- 
ations brought a deeper disappointment and a keener 
sense of humiliation to the English Government, and to 
the nation, than did the disastrous failure of this expe- 
dition, fitted out in haughty pride for the invasion and 
conquest of Louisiana. The true story of the campaign 
and battles was in the main suppressed by the Tory press, 
in the interest of the reigning dynasty and to save the 
pride and prestige of a really great and imperial people. 
A coincidence occurred to aid in diverting the mind of 
the public from the contemplation of the deplorable 
event. On the 23d of February, 181 5, news of the defeat 
at New Orleans reached London. On the same day 
arrived the intelligence of the escape of Napoleon from 
Elba, and of his landing on the shores of France. Public 



156 The Battle of New Orleans 

attention was diverted by the new sensation. The gov- 
ernment press fostered the illusion, and the horrors of 
New Orleans were not so fully known or felt. 

Wilham Cobbett, the noted Liberal essayist and author, 
of England, wrote of the event: "And this was all the 
people of the duped nation ever heard of the matter. 
Bonaparte had landed from Elba, and the battle of Water- 
loo soon succeeded. Both the Government and the people 
were glad to forget all about this unmerciful beating in 
America. This battle of New Orleans broke the heart of 
European despotism. The man who won it did, in that 
one act, more for the good and the honor of the hiunan 
race than ever was done by any other man." 

The author, discussing the incidents and issues of 
this remarkable campaign, in the light of the vast 
superiority in both military and naval forces of the 
British over the Americans, their more thorough equip- 
ment, and their veteran discipline under the best-trained 
officers in the world, put the inquiry: "How can we 
account for the repeated reverses, and the final over- 
whelming defeat and expulsion from the country, of such 
a vast and foiTnidable armament by an inferior body of 
raw recruits, suddenly improvised for defense from the 
militia of the country, and but poorly armed and 
equipped?" "Providence!" was the reply; nothing less 



The Battle of New Orleans 157 

than Providence could have baffled and beaten such a 
powerful foe, bent on conquest and spoliation for a wicked 
purpose, with a wicked spirit, and in a wicked cause. 
England's boastfid pride and intolerant and cruel inso- 
lence toward her American kindred was humbled at last. 
The God of battle had once again in time pimished a strong 
nation for its stubborn crimes, and given victory to the 
oppressed. Providence was with Jackson and his militia! 

Death of Lord Pakenham. 

Pakenham died the death of the brave soldier, the 
heroic Briton, and the beloved commander. His wounds 
were mortal, and he was at once borne back to head- 
quarters unconscious and dying. No last words came 
down to us through the grief-stricken aids who minis- 
tered to him in his last hour. The British accounts of 
his wounding and death-scenes are conflicting and unsatis- 
factory. Judge Walker, in his work, "Jackson and New 
Orleans," after much research, says that Pakenham was 
wounded first while attempting to rally the Forty-fourth 
Regiment, whose chief officer, Colonel Mullins, had failed 
to lead it to a second attack, after the first repulse by 
the Tennessee and Kentucky infantry. A musket-ball 
broke his right arm, and another killed his horse. His aid, 



158 The Battle of New Orleans 

Captain McDougall, assisted him to mount his own horse, 
a Creole pony, and led him forward by the bridle-rein, 
the General's wounded arm hanging helpless at his side. 
Pakenham continued in front, and to encourage his men. 
As the Ninety-third Highlanders came up, he raised his 
hat in his left hand, waved it in the air with enthusiasm, 
and shouted: 

"Hurrah! Hurrah! brave Highlanders!" 

A discharge of grape-shot almost annihilated the group. 
One shot passed through the General's thigh, and at the 
same time through the body of the pony, and both went 
down, never to rise again. As the aid raised him once 
again in his arms, the chief received a third and fatal 
wound in the groin. He was borne back then, near to 
his headquarters, and placed under a large oak tree, where, 
beyond the surgeon's skill, he shortly breathed his last. 

British Soldiers Won Laurels in European Wars. 

From English authorities we learn that there were 
in the English army, under Pakenham, regiments that 
had won laurels at Martinique, Badajoz, Salamanca, 
Vittoria, the Pyrenees, and Toulouse. The English 
chronicler, Cooke, says of some of these veterans, who 
touched, on their way to America from the coasts of 



The Battle of New Orleans 159 

France, the shore of Old England for a few days, that 
"scraps from our colors, or other little souvenirs, were 
craved for with outstretched hands, to find a resting 
place in the fair bosoms of the ladies of Devonshire." 
Others again were but recently transported from the 
fiery ordeals of Corunna, Busaco, and Ciudad Rodrigo, 
says the same author. England never sent forth from 
her borders a braver or better-disciplined body of soldiers, 
as was proven in every trial of campaign and battle of 
the invasion of Louisiana. No other troops in the world 
could have behaved with more sturdy gallantry or fought 
with superior courage. Their defeat was destiny. Provi- 
dence and General Jackson did it! 



i6o The Battle of New Orleans 



General Andrew Jackson. 

Andrew Jackson was bom in the Waxhaw settlement 
on the 15th of March, 1767, so near the border of North 
and South Carohna as to leave it a question of contention 
as to which State may claim the honor of his nativity. 
His father, Andrew Jackson, came over from Carrick- 
fergus, on the north coast of Ireland, in 1765. His 
mother was Elizabeth Hutchinson. The father died 
before the birth of Andrew. His birthplace was a rude 
log cabin of the border. His education was limited to 
the elementary studies of the country schools of his day. 
At the age of fourteen he entered the colonial army, and, 
young as he was, displayed the same spirit of patriotic 
courage and indomitable will that made him famous. 
Two elder brothers had entered the army before him, 
and both gave their lives a sacrifice to the cause of liberty. 
The mother died soon, of grief and the hardships of war. 
Young Andrew was taken prisoner, and roughly treated 
by his captors. He was nearly starved in prison at Cam- 
den. While thus confined, an English officer insolently 
ordered him one day to black his boots. Jackson indig- 
nantly refused, for which offense the brutal officer beat 
him over his head with his sword, inflicting injuries which 



The Battle of New Orleans i6i 

caused suffering in after life. This incident is related 
to have greatly intensified Jackson's hatred of the Eng- 
lish throughout his life. An orphan, and alone in the 
world, when the War of the Revolution was over he was 
apprenticed to learn the saddler's trade. At eighteen 
he began the study of law, in the office of McCoy, in 
Salisbury. 

In 1 7 88, Jackson was appointed public prosecutor 
for western North Carolina, now Tennessee. He removed 
and located at Nashville, and very soon was engaged in 
an active and remunerative practice. In 1796, he sat as 
a delegate in the convention at Knoxville, to frame a 
constitution for Tennessee, admitted into the Union as a 
State in that year. He was the first representative in 
Congress of the new State. But one year afterward, he 
was elected a senator of the United States Congress. In 
1798, he resigned his seat in the Senate to accept an 
appointment as judge of the Supreme Court of his State, 
which office he held for six years. He engaged repeatedly 
in personal rencounters and duels, and in the latter 
received wounds that caused him great physical suffering 
during life. 

Since 1801, he had been commander of the Tennessee 
militia. On the declaration of war against England, 
Jackson offered his services, with twenty-five hundred 



1 62 The Battle of Neiv Orleans 

troops, to the Government for the defense of the country. 
He was ordered to Natchez with two thousand men to 
operate against any movement of the enemy on New 
Orleans. No enemy appearing on the coast, he was 
ordered by Secretary Armstrong, of the War Department, 
to disband his army. This foohsh order Jackson dis- 
obeyed, and very properly led his men back to Tennessee 
before dismissing them. His famous campaign against 
the great Creek nation, in 1814, and his repeated victories 
over these savage allies of England, breaking their power 
and compelling peace; his Gulf Coast campaign and 
battles around New Orleans, crushing the British army 
and driving it from the coimtry; his successful career as 
President of the United States, are well known in the 
history of our nation, and distinguish him as one of the 
ablest and most forceful characters our country has ever 
produced. He died at the Hermitage, full of honors and 
renown, on the 8th of June, 1845, having lived a patriot 
citizen, an able military chieftain, and a great leader in 
the civic affairs of State and nation. 



The Battle of New Orleans 163 



Isaac Shelby, Governor of Kentucky. 

Fortunate was it for Kentucky and for the nation 
that Isaac Shelby directed the mihtary affairs of the 
Commonwealth during the period of the second war with 
England. This famous pioneer of the famous pioneers 
of Kentucky was born in Maryland, on the nth of Decem- 
ber, 1750, near Hagerstown. Early in life he was em- 
ployed as a land surveyor. On the threatened invasion 
of Virginia by the federated army of the Northwest tribes 
under the celebrated chief. Cornstalk, he was lieutenant 
of a company in the command of his father, General 
Evan Shelby, and gained distinction for gallant services 
in the great victory won at Point Pleasant on the loth of 
October, 1774, which forced the Indians to sue for peace. 
He visited Kentucky in 1775, with the vanguard of 
pioneer explorers, and marked the lands which after- 
ward, in 1780, he returned and secured by entry and 
upon which he settled with his family after the Revolu- 
tionary War. 

When he removed from Maryland, he settled near the 
borderline of Virginia and North Carolina, then not 
well defined. Believing his residence on Virginia soil, 
he was elected to the Virginia Legislature in 1779. But 



164 The Battle of New Orleans 

the survey of the boundary Hne determined him a citizen 
of North Carolina, and as such he was officially known 
after until his final removal to Kentucky. In the gloom- 
iest period of the War for Independence, in the southern 
colonies, after the defeat at Camden and the surrender 
of Charleston, Shelby became famous as a border leader 
of what seemed the forlorn hope of the colonists, and for 
his frequent victories over the enemy. With Colonels 
Sevier and Clarke, he led his command to the attack and 
capture of a strong fort in the Cherokee country, which 
had, garrisoned by British, Tories, and Indians, greatly 
harassed the settlers in west North Carolina. Soon after, 
in August, 1780, he inflicted a loss of several hundred by 
an attack on the British at Musgrove's Mill, South Caro- 
lina, and escaped with little loss of his own men. But 
his greatest victory, and one of the most decisive of the 
war, was won at King's Mountain. Joining forces with 
Colonels Sevier and Campbell, a bold attack was planned 
and made on the notorious General Ferguson, encamped 
on King's Mountain. Without artillery, these frontiers- 
men, with their flint-lock rifles, boldly attacked Ferguson's 
veterans, advancing on the enemy up the mountain side, 
and keeping up the fight until Ferguson and nearly four 
hundred of his men were slain, and over seven hundred 
made prisoners. 







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ISAAC SHELBY, 

First and Sivth I ;overnor of Kentucky. 



The Battle of New Orleans 165 

After the close of the war, in the winter of 1782-3, 
General Shelby removed to Kentucky and settled in Lin- 
coln County, where he remained through life at his ele- 
gant home and upon his ample estate, the model citizen 
and patriot. His civic and military fame preceded him, 
for many of his soldiers of the Revolution were his emi- 
grant neighbors. When Kentucky took the initial steps 
toward Statehood in the Union, Shelby was a member 
of the convention of 1787-8, and also of the convention 
to frame the first constitution, of 1792. By unamimous 
consent, he became the first Governor of the Common- 
wealth, in 1792, and was inaugurated as Governor at 
Lexington on the first of June. On the sixth of Jime, 
in courtly style, the Governor appeared in person in 
presence of the legislators, in joint assembly, and read 
to the august body his first message, fonnally deliver- 
ing to the Speakers of each House a copy in manuscript, 
and then retired in dignified state, when the Speakers 
each adjourned the members to their respective halls. 
This was in imitation of the custom of the British mon- 
archs, followed by the colonial governors in America, and 
by Washington himself in his first inaugural ceremonies. 

So much had Governor Shelby established himself in 
the esteem and confidence of the people, that with unani- 
mity he was elected a second time to serve as Governor 



1 66 The Battle of New Orleans 

in the critical period of 1812, when a second war with 
England became a certainty. His indomitable and 
patriotic zeal counted no costs and reckoned at no sacri- 
fice to punish the invaders and drive them from our soil 
during the three years of hostilities. In this time, under 
his several calls, over twenty thousand volunteers were 
sent to the Army of the Northwest under Harrison, from 
Kentucky. By these mainly, the shameful surrender 
of Hull, at Detroit, was retrieved, the victory of the 
Thames won, and the British and their Indian allies 
driven from the borders, from Detroit to Buffalo, for the 
remainder of the war. At the battle of the Thames, 
won by Kentuckians, Governor Shelby led the three 
thousand volunteers whom he had called out for this 
campaign, in person, though in his sixty-fourth year of 
age. On his return to the capital of his State, when a 
last requisition was made by the Secretary of War, in 
1 8 14, thousands of volunteers answered his call for troops 
to reinforce the anny of General Jackson in the South- 
west, of whom three regiments, of twenty-two hundred 
men, were accepted and sent to New Orleans. Governor 
Shelby notified the Government at Washington that, if 
ten thousand soldiers were needed to repel the enemy 
and drive him from our soil in the Southwest, Kentucky 
was ready to supply them on brief notice. 



The Battle of New Orleans 167 

Peace once again reigned when his second term as 
Governor ended. He retired to his country home, where 
he spent the evening of his hfe, honored and esteemed 
by a grateful and devoted constituency of citizenship 
as few men were. He died at his home on the 26th of 
July, 1826, in the ripeness of years and of honors. 



1 68 The Battle of New Orleans 



General John Adair. 

John Adair was bom in Chester County, S. C, in 1759, 
and was the son of Baron Wilham Adair, of Scotland, 
whose wife was a Moore. After remaining some years 
in South Carohna, Baron Adair returned to Scotland. 
The son became a soldier in the Revolutionary War when 
quite a youth, and served with gallantry in the colonial 
army. He was made prisoner, and was treated with 
repeated cruelties by the enemy. He was a member of 
the convention which ratified the Constitution of the 
United States. He removed to Kentucky in 1787, and 
settled in Mercer County. He took an active and promi- 
nent part in the Indian border wars, having been 
appointed major by General Wilkinson. He was in many 
frays with the savages, in one of which, after several 
repulses of a body of Indians largely outnumbering his 
own forces, he was defeated by Chief Little Turtle, though 
he brought off his men after inflicting more serious losses 
on the enemy than his own. This was near Fort St. Clair, 
in Ohio. In 1793, General Scott appointed him a lieu- 
tenant-colonel. He represented Mercer County in the 
Legislature several times, and was once Speaker of the 
House. 



The Battle of New Orleans 169 

Adair's name became involved with Aaron Burr's in 
the mihtary movements in Kentucky and the South- 
west which have become known in history as "Burr's 
Conspiracy," as did the names of Andrew Jackson and 
other prominent men of this country, of unquestioned 
loyalty to our nation. Burr's designs, with all the lights 
thrown upon the question, have remained a mystery to 
this day. If he contemplated ultimate treason, he did 
not fully disclose it to many who were disposed to 
sympathize with and to lend aid to what they were 
persuaded was a legitimate expedition to wrest from 
Spanish rule territory in dispute, or which "manifest 
destiny" determined should come under the nile of the 
United States as against the aggressions of Spain or 
England. Burr undoubtedly misled many good and 
patriotic men, who abandoned his fortunes when the 
intimations of treasonable designs were charged against 
him, which brought him to trial. 

In 1805, when John Breckinridge resigned his seat 
in the United States Senate to become attorney-general 
under Jefferson, Adair was elected to fill the unexpired 
term. He entered the military service again, and at the 
battle of Thames River acted as volunteer aid to Gov- 
ernor Shelby. For gallant conduct on this occasion he 
was made a brigadier-general in 18 14. He took a lead- 
ing part in recruiting the volunteer troops for the rein- 



I70 The Battle of New Orleans 

forcement of Jackson's army at New Orleans, and in their 
transportation down the river. General Thomas, in chief 
command of these, being prostrated with illness, the 
command fell upon General Adair. He displayed cour- 
age and military skill in the disposition of his troops, 
and especially in the final contest on the eighth of Janu- 
ary, under difficulties that were seriously embarrassing. 
In 1820, he was elected governor of Kentucky, and 
held this office when the great questions of relief, and 
Old Court and New Court, began to disturb the peace 
and tranquility of the Commonwealth. In 1831, he was 
elected a member of Congress, and in the national house 
served on the Committee on Military AfTairs. He died 
on the 19th of May, 1840, and was buried in the State 
cemetery at Frankfort, where a monument, erected at 
the cost of the State, with proper inscription, stands over 
his grave. A fine oil portrait of him hangs on the wall 
of the capitol, at Frankfort. 



The Battle of New Orleans 171 



Colonel Gabriel Slaughter 

Who commanded a regiment of Kentucky troops in 
the battle of New Orleans, was a native of Virginia, but 
imigrated to Kentucky in pioneer days and settled in 
Mercer County, about four miles east of Harrodsburg, on 
the turnpike road leading to Lexington. Though a man 
of ability, and much esteemed, he seems to have lived 
in the retirement of private life until the maturity of 
middle age. He early became a member of the Baptist 
church, in which he led a consistent and zealous life, 
taking a prominent part as a layman in the promotion of 
the interests of religion and of the denomination with 
whom he fraternized. His character and worth made 
him prominent among the brotherhood. He often repre- 
sented his church as its messenger, and was usually called 
to preside as moderator over the associations within the 
jurisdictions of which he lived. His hospitality was of 
that warm and generous kind which was characteristic 
of pioneer days. His ample and comfortable country 
mansion, situated upon a much-frequented highway, came 
to be known far and wide as the "Wayfarer's Rest." 

Under the call of Governor Shelby, in 18 14, he enlisted 
a regiment of volunteers for the army of the Southwest 



172 The Battle of New Orleans 

from Mercer County and the counties adjacent, which 
was one of three regiments accepted for this service. 
The gallant and distinguished part taken at New Orleans, 
in the great battle of the eighth of January, by Colonel 
Slaughter and his regiment, has been set forth in the 
pages of this book. No troops engaged on the American 
side on that day did more fatal execution upon the enemy's 
rank and file than did these. Every man of the regiment 
was in rifle-range, and all did deadly work. 

Though courteous and gentle in manner. Colonel 
Slaughter was possessed of invincible firmness and inde- 
pendence when occasion required or a sense of duty urged. 
An incident illustrates. General Jackson, who held him 
in high esteem, appointed him to preside over a court- 
martial. The decision did not meet with the favor of the 
chief, and he ordered a reconsideration and reversal of 
proceedings. Colonel Slaughter declined to comply, saying: 
"I know my duty, and have perfomied it." Jackson's 
esteem was not lessened by the manliness of the answer. 

His gallantry at New Orleans brought the name of 
Colonel Slaughter prominently to political notice, and 
the next year, 1816, he was nominated and elected 
lieutenant-governor, on the ticket with George Madison 
for governor. Madison was not destined to wear the 
civic honors which an ardent constituency had woven 




GABRIEL SLAUGHTER, 

Eleventh Governor of Kentucky. 



The Battle of New Orleans 173 

to crown him. He died in October, a few months after 
the election. Slaughter succeeded him, and was duly 
installed as governor. An active opposition party made 
an open issue of the question as to whether the lieutenant- 
governor was eligible to become governor by succession, 
under the Constitution, or that a successor should be 
chosen at an election to be called by act of the Legisla- 
ture. There had been no precedent to this date. The 
question was fiercely agitated, in and out of the legislative 
halls, during two years of the executive term, before 
a subsidence of partisan feeling ended the contest. 
Governor Slaughter held firmly to his convictions of 
constitutional right, came safely through the angry waves 
of opposition, and served out his term of four years with 
credit to himself and the Commonwealth. The question 
was settled by this precedent, no more to be raised, 
that, under the constitutional provisions then in force, 
the lieutenant-governor should succeed to the office of 
governor upon the " death, resignation, or refusal to 
qualify" of the governor-elect. 

On the expiration of his term Governor Slaughter 
retired to his country home, and resumed his occupation 
as a farmer, leading a quiet and useful citizen life until 
the end. He died at his home in 1830, aged sixty-three 
years. 



174 The Battle of New Orleans 



Kentucky's Contribution to the War of 1812-15. 

It is worthy of mention to the credit of Kentucky 
that, with a population of four hundred thousand, she 
furnished for the nation's defense, during the three years 
of war with England and the savages who allied with her, 
forty regiments of volunteer militia, besides a number of 
battalions and companies, over twenty-four thousand 
men in all, from 1812 to 1815. Excepting a small force 
of volunteers from the then Territory of Ohio, and a few 
regulars, her troops made up the entire body of the army 
of General Harrison in the Northwest campaign, ending 
with the decisive and crushing victory at the battle of 
Thames River, over the combined amiy of British under 
General Proctor, and Indians under Tecumseh. That 
battle was fought and won by the impetuous charges of 
the Kentuckians, under Colonel Richard M. Johnson, 
against the Indians, and his brother. Colonel James John- 
son, against the British, before the forces in the rear, 
mainly Kentuckians also, could be brought into action. 
Before Commodore Perry met the English fleet on Lake 
Erie, he called for one hundred riflemen from Harrison's 
army to perch upon the masts and rigging of his ships, 
as sharpshooters, to pick off the seamen and gunners 
from the enemy's decks. One hundred Kentuckians 



The Battle of New Orleans 175 

volunteered in this perilous service, and others vied with 
them the honors of the place, though all were landsmen 
and strangers to the sea. The British commodore made 
a similar call on Proctor's men and Tecumseh's Indians, 
but none cared to confront the dangers of such a service. 
The fleets coming to close quarters, the deadly fire of the 
riflemen in the rigging helped to strew the decks of the 
enemy's ships with dead and wounded, and to silence 
the giins by shooting down the gunners. 



APPENDIX 



LIST OF KENTUCKIANS IN THE BATTLE OF 
NEW ORLEANS 



I 

Roll of Field and Staff, Mitchusson's Regiment of Ken- 
tucky Detached Militia, War of 1812, Commanded by 
Lieutenant-Colonel William Mitchusson 



William Mitchusson, Lieut. -colonel. 
S.\MUEL Parker, Lieutenant-colonel. 
Reuben Harriso.m, Major. 
Thompson Crenshaw, Major. 
Josi.\H Ramsey, Adjutant. 
Christopher G. Honts, Quartermaster 



William Prince, Paymaster. 
John C. Pentecost, Surgeon. 
Stephen C. Dorris, Surgeon's Mate. 
Isa.\c Caldwell, Sergeant-major. 
Moses Thompson, Ouartermaster-sergt. 
Johnson Loughlin, Fife Major. 



CAPTAIN THOMAS GRIFFIN'S COMPANY 



Thomas Griffin, Captain. 
BoswELL Pulliam, Lieutenant. 
Allen Hays, Ensign. 
Davenport VenablE, Sergeant. 
Terence Kirby, Sergeant. 
Simeon Acton, Sergeant. 
Samuel Spilman, Sergeant. 



William Baird, Corporal. 
John O'Neal, Corporal. 
Jonathan Ewbank, Corporal. 
Alexander Chambers, Corporal. 
James C. Pulliam, Drummer. 
Joseph Right, Fifer. 



Brown, James, 
Baird, David, 
Bigsby, John, 
Biggs, David, 
Berry, John, 
Button, John, 
Button, Zacheus, 
Bardwell, James, 
Bass, Isaac, 
Creek, David, 
Chayson, David, 
Cowin, James, 
Cowen, John, 



privates 

Dobson, Thomas, 
Dry, John, 
Deal, Henry, 
Doke, William, 
Dowell, David, 
Emberton, John, 
Fraley, Nicholas, 
Garrett, Joseph, 
Grisane, Samuel, 
Gibson, John, 
Gressom, Thomas, 
Hobach, Mark, 
Highsmith, William, 



Horton, Daniel, 
Hamilton, Robert, 
Hoofman, Elam, 
Huckaboy, Joseph, 
Huckaboy, Nathan, 
James, Jacob, 
'Jackson, Elijah, 
Johnson, Luther, 
Johnson, Robert, 
Kirby, John, 
Kirby, Leonard, 
Kirby, Isaiah, 
Lee, Mathias, 



Appendix 



Miller, Samuel, 
Morris, Miles, 
Meadows, Jesse, 
Noles, Robert, 
Nelson, William, 
Oliver, Dury, 
Pruelt, Moses, 
Pinkerton, James, 
Rigsby, John, 



Ragland, Benjamin, 
Sayres, John, 
Stovall, Dury, 
Seagrave, John, 
Springer, John, 
Slaton, Ezekiel, 
Stamp, Charles, 
Thompson, John, 



Wetherspoon, James, 
Williams, Milam, 
Weatherspoon, Wiley, 
Welch, Thomas, 
Weatherspoon, Major, 
Wooten, Daniel, 
Wiley, John, 
Wildman, Burnell. 



CAPTAIN ROBERT SMITH'S COMPANY 



Robert Smith, Captain. 
Morton A. Rucker, Lieutenant. 
Asa Turner, Ensign. 
Thomas Kilgore, Sergeant. 
Peter Cash, Sergeant. 
Daniel Powell, Sergeant. 
John Peters, Sergeant. 



William Sandefew, Sergeant. 
Christopher Hardesty, Corporal. 
Charles W. Brown, Corporal. 
James Miller, Corporal. 
James Brunts, Corporal. 
Samuel Skinner, Drummer. 



privates 



Arnet, William, 
Butler, Samuel, 
Barnes, John, 
Bramley, Daniel, 
Capps, Joshua, 
Crabtree, John F., 
Clements, John, 
Crabtree, James, 
Calender, Isaac, 
Cross, Joseph, 
Ducate, James, 
Dixon, Payne, 
Ezell, Harrison, 
Fickas, John, 
Fugudy, Benjamin, 



Gillum, William H., 
Gibson, John, 
Hawthorn, Robert, 
Holifield, William, 
Hardin, Ennis, 
Hardesty, Clemens, 
Hendrix, Thomas, 
Keatch, Ovid, 
Lambert, Joel, 
Lambert, William, 
Mayo, John, 
Martin, Daniel, 
Miller, William, 
McNamer, Phihp, 
McGraw, John, 



McCoy, James, 
PuUom, John, 
Parrick, Thomas, 
Rolls, Abijah, 
Read, James R., 
Stephens, George, 
Smith, Matthew, 
SkiUett, Thomas, 
Sutherland, Ransom, 
Scott, James W., 
Stephens, Jesse, 
Tarpin, William, 
Weathers, John, 
Wiggins, Joshua. 



CAPTAIN THOMAS STERRETT'S COMPANY 



Thomas SterrETT, Captain. 
John Austin, Lieutenant. 
Henry Hines, Ensign. 
John Brewer, Sergeant. 
Nathan Young, Sergeant. 
James B. Revill, Sergeant. 
Nicholas King, Sergeant. 



David C. Feelding, Sergeant. 
Thomas Bridges, Corporal. 
Nathan Johnson, Corporal. 
Stephen Wade, Corporal. 
John Costilow, Drummer. 
Benjamin Templer, Fifer. 



Appendix 



Bratton, George, 
Brown, Henry, 
Condra, William, 
Carter, William, 
Coal, Joseph, 
Calvert, John, 
Cunningham, Brackett C, 
Dawson, James, 
Dawson, Jonas, 
Dawson, John, 
Dawson, Johnson, 
Davis, Thomas, 
Evans, Richard, 
Ethell, James, 
Forkner, Martin, 
Fegert, Alexander, 
Franklin, Stephen, 
Galloway, William, 
Hay, James S., 
Heavener, John, 
Hammond, Thomas, 



Harris, Elijah, » 

Hendrick, James, 
Holloway, Thomas, 
Harlan, George, 
Jenkins, Samuel, 
Johnson, Richard, 
Kown, William, 
Kown, Nathan, 
Kimble, WiUiam S., 
Kidwell, James, 
Kelsey, David, 
Lawrence, James H., 
Long, Abner, 
Marshall, James, 
Mannon, Thomas, 
Moge, Jacob, 
McClammon, James W., 
McClaramon, John S., 
Miller, Philip, 
Mannon, William, 
McMurrv, WiUiam, 



Newman, Jacob, 
Newman, William, 
Owensby, Nicholas, 
Pollard, Elijah, 
Faulk, Moses, 
Pitman, William, 
Roundtree, Turner, 
Roundtree, Kelly B., 
Srader, John, 
Stroude, Doran, 
Stagner, Jeremiah, 
Summons, George, 
Stone, John, 
Stroud, John, 
Templer, Jesse, 
Thompson, Edward, 
Wilkinson, James, 
Wood, Mark D., 
Wood, William, 
Wiley, Elijah, 
Whitlow, Henry. 



CAPTAIN SAMUEL F. MALONE'S COMPANY 



Samuel F. Malone, Captain. 
Elias Button, Lieutenant. 
Dennis Cochran, Ensign. 
Matthew Simon, Sergeant. 
Cornelius Manlev, Sergeant. 
James McAlister, Sergeant. 
Robert T. Anderson, Sergeant. 



Abner Wells, Corporal. 
Hezekiah Lard, Corporal. 
James Gash, Corporal. 
James Black, Corporal. 
Jesse Pulliam, Drummer. 
Tames Robertson, Fifer. 



PRIVATES 



Alexander, Thomas, 
Brown, William, 
Berry, Moses, 
Blair, Andrew, 
Bagman, James, 
Bloyd, John, 
Clark, Roderick, 
Clark, Joseph, 
Chapman, Job, 
Dishmore, James, 



Dishmore, William, 
Duff, Fielding, 
Denison, Zade, 
Dewesse, Elisha, 
Dunagan, Thomas, 
Emerson, William, 
Edgar, Josiah, 
Edgar, Johnson, 
Ellis, Hercules, 
Farley, Clay, 



Greathouse, Hiram, 
Garrison, David, 
Harris, John L., 
Huffman, Cornelius, 
Howell, Hudson, 
Handy, Jesse, 
Hardin, Thomas, 
Hoge, Edmund, 
Johnson, John, 
Jenkins, William, 



l82 



Appendix 



Lewis, Charles, 
Lyon, William, 
Logsdon, John, 
Merritt, John, 
McKinney, Charles W., 
Mitchell, James, 
Newell, John, 
Nunegard, William, 
Nation, Laban, 



O'Neal, Bennett, 
Owens, WiUiara, 
Pickett, John, 
PuUiani, John, 
Penick, James, 
Roundtree, Henry, 
Reed, William, 
Scott, Robert, 
Sutterfield, Eli, 



Scott, Joseph, 
Tribble, Harris, 
Thacker, Allen, 
Taylor, James, 
Taylor, Isaac, 
Williams, William, 
Wheeler, Bond, 
Yoimg, Asa. 



CAPTAIN JOHN C. DODD'S COMPANY 



John C. Dodd, Captain. 
William Harrall, Lieutenant. 
Bert Moore, Ensign. 
Roger Fillev, Sergeant. 
Jordan McVay, Sergeant. 
Hiram PrunEll, Sergeant. 
William Perkins, Sergeant. 



William Story, Sergeant. 
Benjamin D. Cerby, Corporal. 
Mahala Ingram, Corporal. 
JoH.v Sullivan, Corporal. 
Robert Richev, Corporal. 
Fleming Castleberg, Drummer. 
WiLLi.\M Laughlin, Fifer. 



PRIVATES 



Anderson, Evan, 
Baker, Seth, 
Barnett, Samuel, 
Bridges, Thomas, 
Bridges, William, 
Barton, William, 
Bird, Jacob, 
Cammack, WiUiam, 
Carlew, Henry, 
Campbell, Lindsey, 
Carter, James, 
Carlew, John, 
Cannon, Israel, 
Carlew, Robert, 
Davidson, Alexander B., 
Dison, Bennett, 
Drennan, Samuel, 
Dunn, Alexander, 
Duff, James, 
Entricon, John, 
French, Joseph, 
Green, Levi, 
Gaskins, Thadeus, 
Green, James, 



Gilkey, John, 
George, Pallam, 
Hancock, John, 
Hughes, James, 
Heath, Riland, 
Hobart, Joseph, 
Jenkins, Arthur B., 
Jenkins, Whitenell W., 
Kenady, William, 
Long, William, 
Leech, Abner, 
Lamb, William, 
Leech, Zadock, 
Law, Samuel, 
Love, William, 
McNabb, John W., 
Miller, John, 
Moore, Edmund, 
Mercer, Drury, 
McClear, William, 
McElhana, WilUam, 
Manas, John, 
Neily, John, 



NowUn, John, 
Pickering, William, 
Patterson, Thomas, 
Philips, Samuel S., 
Quarles, Stores, 
Robison, Kinsey, 
Robison, WilUam, 
Ritchey, Alexander, 
Ramage, Benjamin, 
Rhinhart, Samuel, 
Robison, Hugh, 
Strawmut, John, 
Strawmatt, William, 
Saxon, Lewis, 
Smith, Stephen, 
Stations, Moses, 
Trimm, Charles, 
Taylor, Solomon, 
Whitenell, John, 
Wadhngton, James, 
Wells, Henry, 
Witherow, Samuel, 
Washington, Thomas C. 



Appendix 



183 



CAPTAIN EDWARD WILBURN'S COMPANY 



Edward Wilburn, Captain. 
John M. Cabiness, Lieutenant. 
James Barring, Ensign. 
Charles Lewis, Sergeant. 
Charles Long, Sergeant. 
Hopkins Bond, Sergeant. 



James White, Sergeant. 
James Young, Corporal. 
John Williams, Corporal. 
William Bristoe, Corporal. 
Joseph Hooper, Corporal. 
Andrew Turpin, Drummer. 



Anderson, James, 
Ashlook, Thomas, 
Agee, William, 
Allen, Samuel, 
Bedford, John C, 
Bunch, Israel, 
Banning, Clark, 
Surges, John, 
Belk, John, 
Belk, James, 
Craft, Gilbert, 
Cheetham, Hezekiah, 
Carpenter, James, 
Craft, George, 
Condrey, Elifus, 
Dohirty, Alexander, 
Eldridge, William, 



French, John, 
Gwinn, Joseph, 
Hicks, Richard, 
Helms, James, 
Hollett, Solomon, 
Jackman, Richard, 
Linsey, Henry, 
Lynn, James, 
Loller, James, 
Lynn, Charles, 
Lewis, John, 
Mitchell, WiUiam, 
Moody, John, 
Murry, John, 
Minst, Francis, 
McElvain, Samuel, 
Nell, Philip, 



Newman, Isaac, 
Ogden, David, 
Reynolds, Charles, 
Richardson, Shaderick, 
Reynolds, Amos, 
Rush, Samuel, 
Staton, Joseph, 
Stockton, Jesse, 
Thurman, William, 
Thurman, Littleberry, 
Tooly, William, 
Vann, John, 
Venable, Daniel, 
Wilburn, William, 
Winfrey, WilUam, 
Young, Robert. 



CAPTAIN ROBERT PAXTONS COMPANY 



Robert Paxton, Captain. 
Daniel Zibb, Lieutenant. 
William Rhea, Ensign. 
William P. Montgomery, Sergeant. 
Campbell Gilmore, Sergeant. 
Isham Ready, Sergeant. 
Alexander Brownlee, Sergeant. 



James Armes, Sergeant. 
Archibald Rhea, Corporal. 
Ashby Jones, Corporal. 
William Hogan, Corporal. 
Anthony Davis, Corporal. 
Allen Miller, Rt. W. M. 



Atwell, Richard, 
Berry, Franklin, 
Butler, Nathan, 
Buckingham, Peter, 
Baker, William, 



Barrett, Thompson, 
Broner, WilUam, 
Byes, Armstrong, 
Batron, Robert, 
Calhoun, John, 



Cunningham, James, 
Caldwell, Andrew, 
Duncan, James, 
Dobson, Joseph, 
Dobson, Robert, 



1 84 



Appendix 



Fans, John, 
Gillingham, John, 
Gooch, Wilham, 
Good, Wilham, 
Hampton, Stephen, 
Harvey, John, 
Hays, Campbell, 
Hays, James I., 
Hays, Andrew E., 
Hunt, James, 
Hayes, James, 
Hogan, Nathan, 
Helton, Thomas, 
Hogan, John, 
Isaacs, Samuel, 
Janes, Berry, 
Lampton, Jesse, 
Lumpkin, Abraham, 



Lisle, Peter, 
Lile, Vincent, 
Lemons, Isaac, 
Montgomery, Robert M., 
Morr, William, 
Montgomery, Cyrus, 
Moseby, Micajah, 
McDaniel, Wilham, 
McKinsley, William, 
Mathews, Samuel, 
McMillan, Joseph M., 
Morris, John, 
Ormes, EUy, jr., 
Ormes, Nathan, 
Ormes, Elly, 
Ormes, Nathan, 
Price, Robert, 



Riley, William, 
Russell, Joseph, 
Ray, John, 
Raffity, John, 
Smith, Isaac, 
Skaggs, Charles, 
Smith, Thomas, 
Smith, Samuel, 
Stearman, William, 
Tribble, Absalom, 
White, John D., 
Waggoner, Willis, 
White, John C, 
Wilson, Thomas, 
Woodard, Abraham, 
White, John, 
Wheeler, Charles. 



CAPTAIN JAMES ROBISON'S COMPANY 



James Robison, Captain. 
Luke Nicholas, Lieutenant. 
George Negley, Ensign. 
Thomas Armstrong, Sergeant. 
Lily Sullivan, Sergeant. 
Samuel Elison, Sergeant. 
James Alexander, Sergeant. 



Karr Hicks, Sergeant. 
Duncan Campbell, Corporal. 
Edward Robison, Corporal. 
Aaron Stallings, Corporal. 
Robert Williams, Corporal. 
George Lacey, Fifer. 



Alexander, John, 
Aainsworth, Joseph, 
Baker, Thomas, 
Britt, Robert, 
Barnes, Thomas B., 
Byle, John H., 
Blakeley, Samuel, 
Boreland, Samuel, 
Coleran, Alexander, 
Coleman, Robert M., 
Cravins, Jesse, 
Dunn, Richard, 
Dinsmore, Jacob, 
Davis, Clem, 
Davis, Joseph, 
Darneal, Thomas, 



privates 

Edwards, Edward, 
Furguson, William, 
Filson, Jesse, 
George, James, 
Gare, Isaac, 
Gibson, Meredith, 
Grace, Henry, 
Hamby, James, 
Hunter, David, 
Hunter, Wilham, 
Henderson, Ezekiel, 
Handy, Benjamin, 
Hardin, Samuel, 
Hardin, Benjamin, 
Inman, Thomas, 
Lancaster, Henry, 



Messick, George, 
Morris, Ely, 
Messimore, George, 
Malin, Thomas, 
Mitchell, William, 
Mesamore, Jacob, 
Nickson, Wilham, 
Pyle, Wilham, 
Pyle, David, 
Stutt, Nicholas, 
Shelton, Elijah, 
Shelton, William, 
Shelton, Abraham, 
Savage, Wilham M, 
Shelton, Joseph, 
Shelton, Robert, 



Appendix 



185 



Smith, Samuel, 
Smith, Cloud, 
SulUvan, Levi, 
Thompson, Lawson, 



Thompson, John, 
Threet, James, 
Thradford, Walker, 



Thomas, James, 
Tell, Joseph, 
Wineard, David. 



CAPTAIN ALMY McLEAN'S COMPANY 



Almy McLean, Captain. 
Ephraim M. Brank, Lieutenant. 
William Alexander, Lieutenant. 
IsA.AC Davis, Ensign. 
John Stull, Sergeant. 
Henry Nusell, Sergeant. 
Enoch Metc.\lf, Sergeant. 



Jordan O'Brien, Sergeant. 

J.^MEs L.'VNGLEY, Corporal. 
Moses M.\TThEws, Corporal. 
Edward H. Tarrants, Corporal. 
George Hill, Corporal. 
Abner B. C. Dillingh.\m, Fifer. 



Apling, Henry, 
Anderson, John, jr., 
Allen, Linsey, 
Anderson, John, 
AUison, McLean, 
Bishop, James, 
Barker, Samuel, 
Bone, Cornelius, 
Bonds, Lott, 
Carter, James, 
Craig, John, 
Combs, Jesse, 
Cob, Elijah, 
Craig, Robert, 
Crouch, Isaac, 
Claxton, Jeremiah, 
Dewitt, William, 
Donnald, James, 
Evans, James, 
Ferguson, John K., 
Foley, Mason, 
Fox, Nathan, 



PRIVATES 

Fowler, Jeremiah, 
Gany, Matthew, 
Gant, Thomas, 
Gamblin, John, 
Grayham, WiUiam, 
Hewlett, Thomas, 
Hines, John, 
Howard, Isaac, 
Hensley, Leftridge, 
Hewlett, Lemuel, 
Hubbard, Liner, 
Jains, Edward, 
Kern, George, 
Kennedy, George F. 
Lott, James, 
Lynn, Gasham, 
Lynn, Henry, 
Leece, Samuel, 
McGill, James, 
Moore, Thomas, 
Matthews, Jacob, 
McFerson, James, 



Martin, John, 
Macons, Peter, 
Nanny, Spencer, 
Norris, Thomas, 
Nixon, James, 
Penrod, George, 
Ripple, Michael, 
Row, Adam, 
Ripple, Jacob, 
Rhodes, Bradford, 
Sever, Michael, 
Sumner, Thomas, 
Sumner, WiUiam, 
Sunn, John F., 
Sanders, George, 
Voris, John, 
Wilcox, Elias, 
Williams, Noah, 
Wade, Hendley, 
Wilson, John, 
Williams, William, 
Yaunce, Lawrence. 



CAPTAIN ROBERT PATTERSON'S COMPANY 

Robert Patterson, Captain. Francis Porter, Sergeant. 

John Henry, Lieutenant. George Hickman, Corporal. 

James Porter, Ensign. Allen Kdykend.\ll, Corporal. 

Allen Carter, Sergeant. William Bailey, Corporal. 

George T. Ashburn, Sergeant. Robert Henry, Corporal. 
Gr.^vEs Gunn, Sergeant. 



1 86 



Appendix 



Albert, Jacob, 
Allen, Andrew, 
Barrett, Enoch D., 
Brian, William, 
Barringer, Jonathan, 
Barnett, James, 
Brown, Richard, 
Burchfield, Thomas, 
Brown, \\'illiam. 
Brown, Jimmy, 
Bailey, James, 
Clawson, John, 
Collins, Dixon, 
Coleman, Archibald, 
Clevenger, Asa, 
Caradine, David, 
Cooksey, Warren, 
ColUns, HoUen, 
Carlisle, Mathew, 
Diamond, John, 
Diamond, James, 
Elam, John, 
Finley, Andrew, 



PRIVATES 

Ford, John, 
Farmer, Gray B., 
Ghster, Thomas, 
Gist, WilUam, 
Gidcomb, John, 
Gibson, Jordan, 
Gilky, Thomas, 
Henderson, Carnes D., 
Haney, Joseph, 
Hodge, Nathan, 
Hadden, William, 
Hunsucker, Samuel, 
Holley, William, 
Jameson, Andrew, 
Kown, Andrew, 
Kenedy, Neil, 
Kuykendall, Mark, 
Larkins, Joseph, 
Land, Lewis, 
Land, Moses, 
Morris, William, 
McFarland, WilUara D., 
Moore, Jeremiah, 



Mann, John, 
Miller, John, 
Mitchell, Blake, 
Neebart, Alexander, 
Page, William, 
Porter, Ohver, 
Ralls, Robert, 
Ralls, Green, 
Smith, Ezekiel, 
Sears, Abraham, 
Smith, Joseph, 
Smith, Asa, 
Steele, Moses, 
Thomas, John, 
Thomas, Thomas, 
Taylor, Peter, 
Tannehill, Benjamin, 
Williams, David, 
Wheeler, Seburn, 
Woods, WilUam, 
Wilson, Benjamin, 
Wood, Peter. 



Appendix. 



187 



II 



Roll of Field and Staff, Slaughter's Regiment, Kentucky 
Detached Militia, War of 18 12, Commanded by Lieu- 
tenant-colonel Gabriel Slaughter 



Gabriel Slaughter, Lieutenant -colonel. 
Lanty Armstrong, First Major. 
William Wakefield, Second Major. 
Samuel Macoun, Lieutenant. 
William Rodes, Lieutenant. 
Roger Thompson, Lieutenant. 
Horatio Gaither, Surgeon, 
Robert H. C. Pearson, S. Mate. 



George C. Berry, S. Mate. 
Thomas Curry, Sergeant-major. 
StroThER H. Gaines, Quartermaster- 
sergeant. 
John Thompson, Assistant Quarterm'r. 
Thomas Wither, Fife Major. 
Abner Decker, Drum Major. 



CAPTAIN GEORGE McAFEE'S COMPANY 



George McAfee, Captain. 
William Bohan, Lieutenant. 
John M. Jordan, Ensign. 
John Lewis, Orderly Sergeant. 
Julius Rucker, Sergeant. 
James Pierson, Sergeant. 



Samuel R. Trouer, Sergeant. 
John Cochran, Sergeant. 
Anderson Powers, Corporal. 
Daniel Bohan, Corporal. 
Daniel Hay, Corporal. 
Thomas Robards, Corporal. 



Adams, Alexander, 
Barnes, Zachariah, 
Brim, Landy, 
Brown, Thomas, 
Bunton, Samuel, 
Bradshaw, James L., 
Berns, Philip, 
Bryant, Daniel, 
Bradley, Jacob, 
Barclay, David, 
Cummings, Alexander, 
Curry, Thomas, 
Combs, Joseph, 
Cummings, Abraham, 
Coovert, Simon, 
Cxury, James, 



privates 

Cooney, James, 
Cooney, Daniel, 
Davis, George, 
Dean, William, 
Dodson, George, 
Dunklin, WiUiam, 
Ellis, Daniel, 
Foreman, Jacob, 
Goodnight, Alexander, 
Green, William, 
Gilmore, Joseph, 
Gabbert, James, 
Harlow, Thomas, 
Haley, Edmund, 
Hulton, John, 
Horn, John, 



Horn, Philip, 
Hall, Barnet, 
Johnston, William, 
Jones, William, 
Jones, Thornton, 
Kirkham, Joseph, 
Knox, George C, 
Kirkpatrick, James, 
Lytic, Lewis, 
Lockhart, Levi, 
Lewis, Elijah, 
Lister, Cornelius, 
Lister, Stephen, 
McAfee, Samuel, 
McDonald, Clement, 
McCoy, Joseph, 



Appendix 



McMinny, William, 
MuUikin, John, 
Mont fort, Jacob, 
Mitchel, Jacob, 
Napier, William, 
Poulter, Joseph, 
Pierson, Joseph, 
PhiUps, Aaron, 
Preston, George, 
Quigley, John, 
Ray, William, 
Rynierson, Jacob, 
Rains, Allen, 
Roberts, William, 



Ruby, Jacob, 
Robertson, Samuel, 
Roberts, James, 
Silyers, John, 
Short, James, 
Short, William, 
Shields, William, 
Sams, Russell, 
Sample, James, 
Short, Coleman, 
Sally, Rany S., 
Stone, Levi, 
Thomas, Thompson, 
Towner, Samuel, 



Thompson, George P., 
Toomy, Isaac, 
Thomas, Edmund G., 
Voris, John, 
Violet, Sinclair, 
Walker, John, 
Wilson, John H., 
Wells, John, sr., 
Wilson, Anthony, 
Wells, John, jr., 
Whitberry, Jacob, 
Weathers, Thomas, 
Vest, Jacob. 



CAPTAIN JOHN EVANS' COMPANY 



John Evans, Captain. 
John Cuppinheifer, Lieutenant. 
Robert Gilmore, Ensign. 
A.\RON B.^rrow, Sergeant. 
Tho.mas Galliwav, Sergeant. 
Joseph Hedrick, Sergeant. 



George Duncan, Sergeant. 
John Evans, Corporal. 
John Burke, Corporal. 
William McCullough, Corporal. 
Thomas Nichols, Corporal. 



Barker, Thomas, 
Bebber, John, 
Beadle, Seaton, 
Barnet, James, 
Barnet, Jubille, 
Bowmer, WilUani, 
Barns, Mathew, 
Burman, James, 
Bowen, William, 
Briant, Morgan, 
Collins, Andrew, 
Dishmon, James, 
Dick, Archibald, 
Dove, James, 
Evans, John, 
Elkins, Richard, 
Floyd, Thomas, 



Fitzpatrick, Samuel, 
Fitzpatrick, George, 
Gough, John, 
Gilmore, William, 
Griffin, John, 
Gregory, Samuel, 
Hargus, Thomas, 
Herrin, Joel, 
Hendrickson, Thomas, 
Hendrickson, Gibson, 
Hardister, William, 
Hargus, John, 
Harp, Westley, 
Harmons, Jesse, 
Hedrick, Jacob, jr., 
Hudson, Robert, 
Hudson, Manoah, 



Hedrick, Jacob, sr., 
Hanes, Ezekiah, 
Hunt, WiUiani, 
Hamilton, James, 
Humphries, David, 
Hunt, Samuel, 
Johnson, James, 
James, Daniel F., 
Jasper, Andrew, 
McAlUster, John, 
Moody, Martin, 
McCarty, William, 
McCan, William, 
McKaughan, William, 
Neal, Isaac, 
Preston, WilUam, 
Price, John, 



Appendix 



Reagan, William, 
Ridge, Robertson, 
Riley, William, 
Sneed, John, 
Stroud, Ansel, 
Tartar, Frederick, 



White, Edward, 
White, Elisha, 
Woolsey, Thomas, 
White, David, 
Weatherman, Simon, 



Wilson, Bird, 
Weddle, George, 
Weddle, John, 
Wright, Walter, 
White, John. 



CAPTAIN LEONARD P. HIGDON'S COMPANY 



Leonard P. Higdon, Captain. 
David Huston, Lieutenant. 
John Young, Ensign. 
Samuel HandlEy, Orderly Sergeant. 
William Bailey, First Sergeant. 
Barton Hawley, Second Sergeant. 



Francis H.\gan, Third Sergeant. 
James W. Tyler, Fourth Sergeant. 
Lsaac Anderson, Corporal. 
James McDaniel, Corporal. 
Henry Holtzclaw, Corporal. 
Nathaniel Harris, Corporal. 



Audd, Ambrose, 
Anderson, Samuel, 
Bredwell, Noah, 
Bowl, James, 
Burkhead, Isaac, 
Blanford, Francis, 
Baldwin, McKinsey, 
Bishop, Solomon, 
Brown, Frederick, 
Blann, James, 
Burkhead, Basil, 
Basey, Jesse, 
Bevin, Walter, 
Bean, Judson, 
Baldwin, Samuel, 
Brown, James, 
Connor, James, 
Clark, Zacheus, 
Cissel, James, 
CofTman, Michael, 
Calvert, Thomas, 
Cane, Michael, 
Clark, John, 
Clemens, Thomas, 
Coimell, Hiram, 



Connolly, Basil, 
Cosby, Overton, 
Clark, Abner, 
DeMorgan, Reuben N. 
Drake, Jacob, 
Dunn, Simpson, 
Davis, Lemuel, 
David, Amos, 
ElUot, Greenbury, 
Foxworthy, George, 
Fox, William, 
Fowler, Thomas, 
Gibson, Henry, 
Hanon, Ezekiel, 
Harrison, Grove, 
Hansford, William, 
Hagerman, Tunis, 
Higdon, James, 
Hibbs, John, 
Hall, Phihp, 
Knott, Henry, 
Lefler, John, 
Lent, WiUiam, 
Lane, Benjamin, 
McDaniel, Redman, 



McLaughlin, Jesse, 
Malon, Jacob, 
McDaniel, Wilham, 
Miles, Francis, 
Magnill, Richard, 
McDaniel, John, 
Osborn, Samuel, 
Parrish, Francis, 
Popham, Hawkins, 
Popham, Wilham, 
Paul, James, 
Polk, James, 
Rynearson, Peter, 
Roberts, George, 
Rozner, Wilham, 
Smither, Joel, 
Smith, John, 
Turner, Joseph, 
Vinson, George, 
Witherton, John, 
Wise, John, 
Wise, Joseph, 
Watson, Joseph, 
Wilson, Benjamin 



190 



Appendix 



CAPTAIN JONATHAN OWSLEY'S COMPANY 



Jonathan Owsley, Captain. 
LoFTis Cook, Lieutenant. 
Stephen Lyons, Ensign. 
Samuel P. Magill, Sergeant. 
Henry Sharp, Sergeant. 
John Logan, Sergeant. 



John Gilbreath, Sergeant. 
John Wood, Sergeant. 
William Forsythe, Corporal. 
Robert Bryant, Corporal. 
John Huff, Corporal. 
Thomas Scott, Corporal. 



Adams, Edward, 
Bettis, John, 
Bower, Francis, 
Bryant, William, 
Burnett, Nicholas, 
Berry, Labon S., 
Ball, Isaiah, 
Brook, John, 
Baldwin, Joseph. 
Burton, William, 
Bowman, Jacob, 
Breden, James, 
Coombs, John, 
Cox, Leroy, 
Cavenaugh, Philemon, 
Cash, William, 
Dudarar, Coonrod, 
Dudar, William, 
Dodson, Thomas, 
Davis, Nathan, 
Doolin, James, 
Davis, John, 
Dasswell, Jesse, 
Duncan, WiUiam, 
Embree, EHjah, 
Etone, Elijah, 



Ervin, Francis, 
Edwards, Peter, 
Forsythe, David, 
Goodnight, John, 
Gooch, Roland, 
Gibson, John, 
Gill, Angel, 
Hill, Zachariah, 
Hotzclaw, Benjamin, 
Hackley, James, 
Hair, John, 
Hutson, Lodrick, 
Harvey, James W., 
Haynes, James, 
Holmes, George, 
Hall, James, 
Jackson, William, 
Low, Thomas, 
Lavinder, John, 
Lawrence, Hugh, 
Lynn, James, 
Martin, WiUiam, 
McRoberts, Andrew, 
McMuUen, John, 
McCrutcheon, Wilham, 



McManny, Charles, 
Newcomb, Wilson, 
Nelly, Edward, 
Oalder, Jonathan, 
Pettit, Walker, 
Pence, John, 
Parsons, Obediah, 
Prewitt, David, 
Ray, Joseph, 
Renalds, Fountain, 
Roberts, James, 
Ross, Thomas J., 
Raybourne, John, 
Simpson, John, 
Sulton, Walker, 
Souder, Jefferson, 
Spratt, Thomas, 
Singleton, Mclntire, 
Stephens, John, 
Singleton, Thomas, 
Tedrick, Jacob, 
Warden, William, 
Wade, Jeremiah, 
Wood, William, 
Warren, Burris. 



CAPTAIN JOHN FARMER'S COMPANY 



John Farmer, Captain. 
Willoughby Ashby, Lieutenant. 
John Figg, Ensign. 
Jesse Keeth, First Sergeant. 
David WellER, First Sergeant. 
Isaac Chambers, First Sergeant. 



Isaac Houston, Second Sergeant. 
Owen R. Griffith, Third Sergeant. 
Corcelius Woods, Fourth Sergeant. 
Samuel Heffler, First Corporal. 
Barnard Bridwell, Second Corporal. 
George WellER, Third Corporal. 



Appendix 



191 



Angel, George, 
Anderson, Thomas, 
Anderson, John, 
Berton, William, 
Bright, John, 
Brown, Robert, 
Bennett, Jery, 
Brewer, James, 
Boly, Peter, 
Carter, William, 
Carico, James, 
Chaplain, Jery, 
Carter, Samuel, 
Carter, Joseph, 
Conor, George, 
Cane, Mathew, 
Doneheu, James, 
Denbow, James, 
Davis, Jesse, 
Dewitt, Abraham, 
Davis, John, 



PRIVATES 

Gilkey, WiUiam, 
Grubb, William, 
Glass, James H., 
Hampton, David, 
Hill, Robert, 
Harden, John, 
Huffman, George, 
Hagan, Dory, 
Ice, James, 
Jones, Joseph, 
Jones, John, 
Johnston, William, 
Johnston, Joseph, 
Kenny, Wilham, 
Keth, Isaac, 
Low, Richard, 
Lent, Joseph, 
Lanam, James, 
Mattingly, Edward, 
Medcalf, James, 



Medcalf, Benjamin, 
Marshall, Daniel, 
Miller, Frederick, 
Micater, Patrick, 
Philips, George, 
Powers, Richard, 
Reed, Richard, 
Robinson, Alexander, 
Spilman, Henry, 
Springston, Abraham, 
Sinkhorn, Wilham, 
Shaream, George, 
Seals, John, 
Thompson, James, 
Thompson, John, 
Walker, Howard, 
White, John, 
White, Francis, 
Wilcox, Isaac, 
York, John. 



CAPTAIN ADAM VICKERY'S COMPANY 



Adam Vickery, Captain. 
John G.\rner, Lieutenant. 
John B.\rrow, Ensign. 
Hiram Gregory, Sergeant. 
Thomas Brown, Sergeant. 
Moses Barnes, Sergeant. 



Alexander Brown, Sergeant. 
Harm an Elrod, Sergeant. 
William Hurt, Corporal. 
George Dodson, Corporal. 
Thomas Ryon, Corporal. 
Lapslv Hall, Corporal. 



Ard, James, 
Andrew, Alexander, 
Acre, Peter, 
Burnham, Owen, 
Bell, John, 
Ballard, John, 
Burnet, James, 
Baker, James, 
Baker, Stephen, 
Barnes, Wilham, 
Bowman, Willis, 



PRIVATES 

Barnes, Enos, 
Brown, Lewis, 
Brown, Barnabus, 
Butrim, Cornelius, 
Craig, John H., 
Casson, John, 
Caughorn, William, 
Cook, Enos, 
Cox, David, 
Cooper, Caleb, 
Duffey, John, 



Dean, James, 
Davis, WilUam, 
Dabney, Charles, 
Elrod, Adam, 
Foster, John, 
Gray, Jesse, 
Gholson, Samuel, 
Gibson, Stephen, 
Gooding, Abraham, 
Gibson, Thomas, 
Hains, John, 



192 



Appendix 



Hill, William, 
Hall, Henry, 
Hill, Claiborn, 
Keniday, John, 
Kogan, William, 
Lea, John, 
Luster, John, 
Lenn, James, 
Lambert, Henry, 
Livingston, Robert, 
Miller, George, 
McGown, Solomon, 
Mills, Uhssius, 
Moore, David, 



Mays, David, 
Neal, Jesse, 
Pow, Alexander, 
Ray, John, 
Southword, John, 
Shaw, John, 
Shelton, John, 
Savage, John, 
Shelton, James, 
Smith, WiUiam, 
Stephens, Peter, 
Smith, Henry, 
Stephens, Thomas, 
Smith, George, 



Sallee, William I , 
Tiller, John, 
Thornton, John, 
Thomas, Samuel, 
Wade, John, 
Willice, John, 
Woods, James, 
Welsher, Joshua, 
West, Joseph, 
Welsher, Josiah, 
West, Alexander, 
Wade, Elisha, 
Wray, Daniel, 
Wallace, Barnabus. 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM WOOD'S COMPANY 



WiLUAM Wood, Captain. 
Peter Oatman, Lieutenant. 
Thomas Brown, Ensign. 
Henry Robinson, Sergeant. 
Absalom Rice, Sergeant. 
George Herring, Sergeant. 



Is.iac Therman, Sergeant. 
Thomas Jones, Sergeant. 
John McKinsev, Corporal. 
John Allen, Corporal. 
Simon MobELY, Corporal. 
John Bourne, Corporal. 



Anderson, Garland, 

Anderson, Thomas, 
Adams, John, 
Blankenship, John, 
Brown, Stanton, 
Bailey, Lewis, 
Beech, Joel, 
Brown, Wilham, 
Burton, Allen, 
Brown, Edwin, 
Barron, Mathias, 
Barker, Richard, 
Boadly, Peter D., 
Brown, John, 
Clements, Thomas, 
Coy, Samuel, 
Chambers, Abraham, 
Coy, Thomas, 
Clark, William, 



PRIVATES 

Davidson, John, 
Duggins, Richard, 
Dooly, Jacob, 
Duncan, George, 
Dotson, Thomas, 
Edens, Mathew, 
Elliott, Reuben, 
Erton, Henry, 
Graham, Robinson, 
Gill, John, 
GreenstafF, George, 
Garvin, William, 
Green, Thomas, 
Gromer, Henry, 
Gayheart, Isaac, 
Hotsclaw, Martin, 
Horley, William, 
Hurd, William, 
Hay, Isaac, 



Huffman, Henry, 
Henderson, Joseph, 
Hicks, Fleming, 
Hoskins, Samuel, 
Holmes, Isaac, 
Jackman, Thomas, 
Lampton, William, 
McMeas, Jacob, 
Martendale, Moses, 
McFadgin, James, 
Moore, Moses, 
Miller, James, 
Mayfield, Sutherland, 
Naylor, Jesse, 
Newcomb, Lance, 
Naylor, George T., 
Naylor, John, 
Pow, William, 
Pollard, Abner, 



Appendix 



193 



Preston, John, 
Pucket, William, 
Spencer, John, 
Stone, James, 
Stanton, Fleming, 
Skiler, John, 
Stephens, WilUam, 
Stephens, , 



Thacker, Elijah, 
Turpin, James, 
Tarrent, Larkin, 
Tunget, Benjamin, 
Vance, Jacob, 
Weather, John, 
Warren, Joseph, 



Wiley, Benjamin, 
Woodal, John, 
Warmouth, Thomas, 
Warmouth, Githean, 
Williams, Oscar, 
WilUams, George, 
Yancy, George. 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM WADE'S COMPANY 



William Wade, Captain. 
John Riffe, Lieutenant. 
M.^THEw Coffee, Ensign. 
David Johnson, Sergeant. 
Joshua Moore, Sergeant. 
John D. Thurmond, Sergeant. 



John Spears, Sergeant. 
John Shannon, Sergeant. 
William Jones, Corporal. 
John Estis, Corporal. 
Starling Coulter, Corporal. 
Jacob Cunningham, Corporal. 



(Obinion or)Albanion, 
Barnett, Skuyler, 
Carmen, WilUam, 
Curdum, William, 
Coxe, Joseph, 
Carter, Moses, 
Cloyd, Joseph, 
Charlton, Levi, 
Coulter, Morris, 
Carman, Ezekiah, 
Clifton, Nehemiah, 
Clifton, Isaiah, 
Cinkhous, Henry, 
Cunningham, Thomas, 
Clark, Thomas, 
Dyer, William, 
Duncan, Flemmin, 
Dobbs, WiUiam, 
Drummond, James, 
Davenport, Thomas, 
East, Nimrod, 
Ewebank, James, 
Ecten, Charles, 
Edwards, Aaron, 
Ellis, John, 



PRIVATES 

Geo. Figg, Wilham, 

Gentry, Benjamin, 
Gee, John, 
Hite, Burton, 
Harvey, Robert, 
Harvel, Squire, 
Hutcherson, Samuel, 
Johnson, Luke, 
King, Thomas, 
Linthicum, Thomas, 
Lee, Francis, 
Lee, Joseph P., 
McCutchan, Samuel, 
Minor, Laban, 
Mason, James, 
McWherton, Jesse, 
Mason, Thomas, 
McCan, William, 
Mason, Thomson, 
Northcut, Arthur, 
Noble, Thomas, 
Pankey, John B., 
Price, Robert, 
Royaltree, Henry, 
Riffe, Christopher, 



Ragsdale, Gabriel, 
Royaltree, William, 
Rifle, Abraham, 
Reed, PhiHp, 
Routsaw, Coonrod, 
Raghn, James, 
Reed, Little B., 
Studer, David, 
Seabron, Jehu, 
Stepp, Wilham, 
Selch, Nicholas, 
Skidmore, John, 
Snow, John, 
Studor, Randal, 
Stanton, William, 
Thomas, Robert, 
Tailor, Jacob, 
Vorus, Abraham, 
Vantres, Jacob, 
Williams, Amos, 
Wright, Bennett C, 
Whitesides, David, 
Williams, Richard, 
Yager, Lewis. 



194 



Appendix 



CAPTAIN EDWARD BERRY'S COMPANY 



Edward Berry, Captain. 
David Rodman, Lieutenant. 
Thomas McIntire, Ensign. 
Stephen Thompson, Sergeant. 
George Elliott, Sergeant. 
Starling Thompson, Sergeant. 



Charles Fowler, Sergeant. 
John Austin, Sergeant. 
Andrew Powel, Sergeant. 
Joel Nelson, Sergeant. 
Philip Richardson, Sergeant. 
John McClure, Sergeant. 



PRIVATES 



Adams, Henry, 
Bums, Isaac, 
Bennett, George W., 
Baker, James, 
Baker, William, 
Bryan, John, 
Barnett, William, 
Champion, Joseph, 
Cannon, Robert, 
Cogenom, George, 
Campton, James, 
Casey, David, 
Catlin, Seth, 
Carter, Benjamin, 
Cross, William, 
Creagh, Christian, 
Davis, Robert, 
Earl, Samuel, 
Ferguson, Daniel, 
Franklin, Edward, 
Graves, John, 
Hickerson, John, 
Hickerson, Joseph, 
Hilton, Henry, 
Hart, William, 



Higgins, David, 
Jackson, James, 
Lockett, Samuel, 
Lannom, Lewis, 
Lawson, Chester, 
Lawson, Berry, 
Lambert, David, 
Lannom, Samuel, 
Miles, Alexander, 
Miller, Joseph, 
Morgan, Abraham, 
McMurry, Thomas, 
Maxwell, Charles, 
Morris, Reuben, 
Matherly, Joel, 
Malone, William, 
Milboum, Israel, 
McMurry, William, 
Mann, William, 
McAllister, James, 
Mead, Joseph, 
McMurry, WiUiam, 
McAUister, Daniel, 
Miles, Edward, 
Montgomery, Thomas, 



Nelson, William, 
Oldridge, Nathaniel, 
Prewitt, Daniel, 
Prater, Reson, 
Richards, Zodick, 
Ridge, Cornelius, 
Ridge, WiUiara, 
Right, Robert, 
Right, William, 
Reed, Nathan, 
Seamster, Pleasant, 
Simpson, Floyd, 
Stump, Johnston, 
Simpson, Asa, 
Taylor, Jeremiah, 
Tolby, Jonathan, 
Whitter, WiUiam, 
Watham, James H., 
White, Thomas L., 
Watham, Nicholas, 
Whitten, Jeremiah, 
Whitehouse, John, 
Whitehouse, Cornelius, 
Woods, Henry. 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM PHILIPS' COMPANY 



William Philips, Captain. 
Godhart Smack, Lieutenant. 
John Ludwick, Ensign. 
Asa R. Hill, Sergeant. 
Joseph Abel, Sergeant. 
William McEnerv, Sergeant. 
Charles Colter, Sergeant. 



Henry Cowan, Sergeant. 
Robert Rochester, Corporal. 
John Grayham, Corporal. 
John Mobley, Corporal. 
Robert Brumfield, Corporal. 
Thomas Hill, Musician. 
William Vanoy, Musician. 



Appendix 



195 



Anderson, Thomas, 
Blaire, James, 
Brown, Francis, 
Brown, Henderson, 
BuUott, John, 
Butler, William, 
Botains, William, sr., 
Botains, William, jr., 
Baker, Henry, 
Blacketler, William, 
Camburn, Osburn, 
Cissell, Thomas, 
Cidwell, John, 
Caho, John, 
Cissell, Robert, 
Cannon, Israel, 
Cravens, James, 
Cunstable, Stephen, 
Cinkhorn, John, 
Cundiff, James, 
Cartico, Lloyd, 
Collier, Daniel, 
Easton, John, 
Elliott, John, 
Enson, George, 



PRIVATES 

Green, Charles, 
Gerton, John, 
Grey, Charles, 
Galesby, Edward, 
Gains, Strother H., 
Harris, Overton, 
Harris, William, 
Hinton, Shadrick, 
Howard, Charles, 
Hall, Thomas, 
Knott, Jeremiah, 
Landers, James, 
Lyons, John, 
Lyons, Charles W., 
Lanham, William, 
Lockman, John B., 
Lockman, Charles, 
Mercer, Martin, 
Mills, Samuel, 
Mattingly, Joseph, 
Mahoney, William, 
Miller, Ignatius, 
Marby, Micajah, 
Morgan, Jubel, 



Meanally, Basil, 
Meanally, John, 
Mitchel, Jacob, 
Newton, Ignatius, 
Nichols, John, 
Owings, James, 
Patterson, Joseph, 
Philips, Jesse, 
Quigans, James, 
Quigans, Joseph, 
Stemmons, Henry, 
Stanfield, John, 
Smithers, Daniel, 
Smith, Richard, 
Simpson, AUugus, 
Smith, John, 
Sanders, John, 
Updergrove, Joseph, 
Vessels, Benjamin, 
Vaun, Obediah, 
Waid, Evan, 
Wooley, John, 
Williams, Edward, 
Whitehouse, Thomas. 



196 



Appendix 



III 



Roll of Field and Staff, Davis's Regiment, Kentucky 

Detached Militia, War of 18 12, Commanded by 

Lieutenant-colonel Presley Gray 



Presley Gray, Lieutenant -colonel. 

John Davis, Major. 

James Johnson, Major. 

William Walker, Major. 

Zeba Holt, Major. 

S. C. Stephens, Adjutant. 

George P. Miller, Paymaster. 

Zachariah Terryhel, Quartermaster. 

Allen A. Hamilton, Surgeon. 



Henry Winslow, Surgeon's Mate. 
William W. Ford, Sergeant-major. 
Samuel Stewart, S. Mate. 
William Vancleve, Drum Major. 
John Curry, Fife Major. 
Samuel Gray, Quartermaster-sergeant. 
Samuel Blackwell, Quartermaster- 
sergeant. 



CAPTAIN ROBERT THRUSTON'S COMPANY 



Robert Thruston, Captain. 
Henry Gresham, Lieutenant. 
John D. Gott, Ensign. 
Samuel S. Green, Sergeant. 
Daniel Raosd.\lE, Sergeant. 
John S. Simpson, Sergeant. 
Aaron Collett, Sergeant. 



George Runger, Corporal. 
Adam Gilliland, Corporal. 
Isaac Hill, Corporal. 
David Richey, Corporal. 
John Curry, Fifer. 
Thomas Curry, Drummer. 



Armstrong, Benjamin, 
Arnold, William, 
Arnold, Robert, 
Allen, Nathaniel, 
Alexander, John, 
Blanton, Thomas, 
Bowman, James, 
Bryant, Thomas, 
Brooky, John, 
Harnett, Philip E., 
Blanchard, John, 
Caldwell, William, 



privates 

Cathran, John, 
Cooley, Jesse, 
Clark, David, 
Crow, Andrew, 
Chenowith, Thomas, 
Collett, Moses, 
Caplinger, John, 
Cottonham, John D., 
Daniels, George, 
DawA'ille, Charles, 
Elsbury, Jonathan, 
Farmer, James, 



Galbreath, William, 
Hunter, Charles, 
Hunter, Willis, 
Hill, John, 
Ingraham, James, 
Inshmeyer, John, 
Knapp, Charles, 
Kirk, James, 
Kincade, Matthew, 
Lowell, Jacob, 
Leggett, John, 
Miller, Christopher, 



Appendix 



197 



Messen, James, 
Milam, John, 
McCartney, Andrew, 
Newell, Archibald, 
Osborn, John, 
Porter, James, 
Pittenger, Thomas, 
Prewett, Joel, 
Parsons, David, 
Penley, Wesley, 



Russell, John, 
Ragsdale, Frederick, 
Robinson, James, 
Shrum, John, 
Sharp, William, 
Standiford, William, 
Smith, Henry, 
Spence, Willis, 
Stillwell, Isaiah, 



Stafford, Thomas, 
Tyler, Willis, 
Taylor, James, 
Tadlock, Alexander, 
Thursby, James, 
Weems, James S., 
White, Warren, 
Woodward, John, 
Washburn, Samuel S. 



CAPTAIN THOMAS JOYES' COMPANY 



Thomas Joyes, Captain. 
Andrew Porttorff, Lieutenant, 
Samuel E.\rickson, Ensign. 
John Hadley, Sergeant. 
William Sale, Sergeant. 
John Booker, Sergeant. 



John W. Bainbridge, Sergeant. 
John Ray, Corporal. 
John O. Hanlon, Corporal. 
William DuERSon, Corporal. 
Abner C. Young, Corporal. 



Ames, Robert B., 
Brinley, Jacob, 
Bateman, Isaac, 
Balee, Abraham, 
Booty, John, 
Brandenburgh, Absalom, 
Bagwell, John, 
Croxton, Cornelius, 
Carson, Hugh, 
Cardwell, WilUam, 
Carlton, Francis D., 
Crossgrave, Charles, 
Calhoun, Alexander, 
Dunn, Thomas, 
Davis, Squire, 
Dougherty, Patrick, 
Elms, William, 
Floyd, Nathaniel, 
Gosshort, Adam, 
Greenawalt, John, 
Glassgow, James, 
Glassgow, John, 



Guthrie, Moses, 
Hilliard, Anson G., 
Hill, Mason, 
Hubbs, Jacob, 
Holt, Samuel, 
Johnson, William, 
Jones, John, 
Jackson, George, 
Kelly, Christopher, 
Lashbrook, Samuel, 
Martin, Westley, 
Meddis, Godfrey, 
Morlow, Peter, 
Miller, John, 
Merryfield, John, 
Miller, Levi, 
Myrtle, William, 
Miller, George, 
Mayfield, Isaac, '' 
Morrow, John, 
Minter, John, 



Meddis, John, (Waiter) 

Newkirk, William, 

Ormer, Peter, 

Parish, Price, 

Pearson, George R., 

Pierce, Chester, 

Ralston, Alexander, 

Risley, James, 

Ross, Thomas, 

Stewart, James, 
Stower, Patrick, 
Slaughter, Jacob, 
Stout, Michael, 
Talbot, Thomas, 
Thickston, WiUiam, 
Tyler, Joseph, 
Traceler, Philip, 
Williams, Moses, 
Woodward, James, 
Wheeler, Jesse, 
Welsh, Moses. 



Appendix 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM WALKER'S COMPANY 



William Walker, Captain. 
John Smith, Lieutenant. 
John Webb, Ensign. 
John HarvEv, Sergeant. 

Arterbury, James, 
Bear, John, 
Benedict, Tomkins, 
Bear, Adam, 
Bear, George, 
Burgman, William, 
Bates, Simeon, 
Brewer, Charles, 
Brown, Asa, 
Carr, Elijah, 
Clarke, Albin, 
Cashman, Peter, 
Cashnian, John, 
Case, Jacob, 
Cowper, Joshua, 
Caffrey, Thomas M., 
Clayton, John, 
Davis, Silas, 
Dawson, John, 
Dowddle, Thomas J., 
Gardner, James, 



John H. Gibbs, Sergeant. 
Joel Hardin, Sergeant. 
Elijah York, Sergeant. 



privates 

Gilblaine, Robert, 
Goatly, Thomas, 
Gentry, WilUam, 
Glasscock, William, 
Horton, Anthony, 
Hulse, Josiah, 
Holmes, Nicholas, 
Hedges, Robert, 
Hayes, Daniel, 
Jarboe, Joseph, 
Jackson, Isaac, 
Johns, John, 
Kindor, Peter, 
King, John, 
Keith, Jacob, 
Langsley, John, 
Liney, Zachariah, 
Lyons, John, 
Mattingly, Bennett, 
Morgan, Lambeth, 



Mellor, Jacob, 
Millor, John, 
Night, John, 
Osten, Jeremiah, 
Parpoint, Charles, 
Pate, Allen, 
Painter, William, 
Pile, Francis, 
Paul, George, 
Pearman, Samuel, 
Pearman, John, 
Pate, Jeremiah, 
Padden, John, 
Radley, Ichabod, 
Sally, Ohver P., 
Sevaney, Glasberry, 
Slack, WilHam, 
Thomas, Joseph, 
White, William, 
Whitaker, Jesse. 



CAPTAIN JOSEPH FUNK'S COMPANY 



Joseph Funk, Captain. 
Thomas Todd, Lieutenant. 
Martin Adams, Ensign. 
William Wallace, Sergeant. 
Isaac Carr, Sergeant. 
James Austin, Sergeant. 



Joseph Willhort, Sergeant. 
Frederick Mason, Corporal. 
James Prewitt, Corporal. 
John Young, Corporal. 
Thomas Bateman, Corporal. 
William Teter, Corporal. 



Anderson, Thomas, 
Archer, Thomas, 
Austin, William, 
Austin, Daniel, 
Bateman, John, 



PRIVATES 

Briser, James, 
Blankinboke, Jacob, 
Brooks, Jacob, 
Cann, Edward, 
Campbell, James, 



Campbell, George 
Crews, Elijah, 
Crews, Zachariah, 
Crow, Andrew D., 
Cox, George, 



Appendix 



199 



Edmondson, John, 
Fiteshue, Cole, 
Fitzer, Jacob, 
Ferguson, Samuel, 
Forus, James, 
Oilman, Timothy, 
Griffy, Samuel, 
Greathouse, Luther, 
Green, Joseph, 
Gunn, Jonathan, 
Green, John, 
Harris, Thomas, 
Hendricks, James F., 
Hortly, John, 
Hensely, Alexander, 
Harmond, John, 
Hobson, Milburn, 



Ingram, James, 
Jones, Hamilton, 
Job, Andrew, 
Jones, Thomas, 
Johnson, Thomas, 
Kalfers, Jacob, 
Knight, John, 
Louther, Henry, 
Leggett, William, 
Maxwell, William, 
Mitchell, WilUam, 
Miller, Adam, 
Pearce, John, 
Powell, William, 
Portlow, Samuel, 
Portlow, Edward, 
Rudy, George, 



Shelman, Jacob, 
Spalding, George W., 
Steel, Andrew, 
Stuart, Robert, 
Shake, John, 
Shake, Adam, 
Shirley, Absalom, 
Tyler, David, 
Tyler, Absalom, 
WilUams, Benjamin, 
Willhoit, Larkin, 
Wilky, John, 
Wood, Timothy, 
Wood, Henry, 
Wooden, Robert, 
Woodward, Michael. 



CAPTAIN ZIBA HOLT'S COMPANY 



ZiBA Holt, Captain. 
John Montgomery, Lieutenant. 
Adam Mowny, Ensign. 
Wyat Coleman, Sergeant. 
William Stewart, Sergeant. 
Henry Blunt, Sergeant. 



John Holody, Sergeant. 
Thomas Sublett, Corporal. 
Joseph Pew, Corporal. 
Nathan Chalfrant, Corporal. 
Mark Williams, Corporal. 
Jeremiah Stowers, Fifer. 



Anderson, Josiah, 
Agins, John, 
Baker, Joseph, 
Brasher, Reason, 
Boon, Moses, 
Brown, William, 
Bags, John, 
Bamhill, William, 
Brent, James, 
Barker, Samuel, 
Colvin, James M., 
Chase, William, 
Conway, William, 
Corin, William, 
Crews, Jeremiah, 
Dermit, James, 



privates 

Drinkel, Timothy, 
Dean, John, 
Eallon, Charles, 
Gillum, Charles, 
Glenn, John, 
Gillum, Benjamin, 
Gilpin, George, 
Glass, John, 
Holt, John, 
Hammon, John, 
Heath, Martin, 
Horton, James, 
Gentry, Pleasant, 
Gibson, Perrygon, 
Gannon, Zachariah, 
Jones, Hamilton, 



James, Thomas, 
Jones, Moses, 
Kindor, Peter, 
Kendall, Thomas, 
Keyton, John, 
Lattey, Mathew, 
Lock, Samuel, 
McGee, William, 
Miller, William, 
Montgomery, Robert, 
McGannon, Thomas, 
Overton, Moses, 
Parrot t, William, 
Parker, Asa, 
Reastine, John, 
Reed, James, 



200 



Appendix 



Ragsdale, William, 
Robbins, David, 
Redding, Samuel, 
Senor, David, 
Spencer, Ambrose, 
Sparks, Walter, 



Spillman, Charles, 
Sparks, Henry, 
Taylor, John, 
Thomas, John, 
Veal, Thomas, 
Watson, Samuel, 



Williams, John, 
Waters, Major, 
WilHams, Samuel, 
Wiley, Matthew, 
Wooders, Stephen. 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM GANAWAY'S COMPANY 



William Ganawav, Captain. 
Julius C. Jackson, Lieutenant. 
John Field, Ensign. 
John Clever, Sergeant. 
Peter Bodine, Sergeant. 
Samuel C. Myers, Sergeant. 



Henry Leach, Sergeant. 
Samuel Kelly, Corporal. 
John Travis, Corporal. 
John Cohen, Corporal. 
Benj.\min Thomas, Corporal. 



PRIVATES 



Anderson, Athel, 
Bott, John, 
Barron, Josiah, 
Burnett, Abraham, 
Barron, Thomas, 
Barron, Shadrick, 
Barnett, Felia, 
Bennett, Briant, 
Bartell, George, 
Bennett, Reuben, 
Brown, Isaac, 
Brown, Henry, 
Cane, John, 
Conrad, Henry, 
CoUard, William, 
Colaway, Walter, 
Conrad, John, 
Davis, George, 



Dunlap, Henry, 
Duff, William M., 
Evans, William, 
Fulkerson, Adam, 
Fulkerson, John, 
Haycraft, James, 
Hogan, George, 
Harris, Samuel, 
Islor, Jacob, 
Jones, Lemuel, 
Jones, Philip, 
Jordan, James, 
Kelly, George W., 
Kelly, Benjamin, 
Lewellon, Jabez, 
Lock, William, 
Logsdon, James, 
Moloham, Clement, 



Myers, Benjamin, 
Miller, Uriah, 
Ogden, Zachariali, 
Ogden, Levi, 
Olvy, Thomas, 
Olvy, Clement, 
Ogden, James, 
Philips, John, 
Prunty, Robert, 
Rice, Allen, 
Spray, Jonas, 
Sconse, John, 
Tanner, Frederick, 
Wakeland, WiUiam R. 
Ward, Jesse, 
Williams, Evan, 
Welcher, William, 
Wood, Robert. 



CAPTAIN JACOB PEACOCK'S COMPANY 



Jacob Peacock, Captain. 
Benjamin Henson, Lieutenant. 
John Kelly, Ensign. 
Joseph Swearing, Sergeant. 
Jesse Burch, Sergeant. 
Benjamin Collins, Sergeant. 



John Shirkiliffe, Sergeant. 
William Todd, Corporal. 
Levi Ridgway, Corporal. 
Joseph Rudd, Corporal. 
Walter Smith, Corporal. 
Ch.'Uiles Wilson, Corporal. 



Appendix 



20 1 



Burdett, William, 
Burdett, Benjamin, 
Beam, George, 
Baldwin, McKensey, 
Blanford, George, 
Bishop, Henry, 
Craw, Joseph, 
Campbell, Jacob, 
Cummins, John, 
Clark, Joseph, 
Collins, Elisha, 
Cardwell, George, 
Charles, WilUam, 
Cosby, Ignatius, 
Davis, John, 
Dumont, Peter, 
Danielson, William, 
Duberry, Benjamin, 
Duberry, James, 
Easton, Samuel, 



Glass, Royal, 
Greenwell, John B., 
Harris, Essex, 
Hardy, Jacob, 
Hopewell, Thomas, 
Herrin, James, 
Johnson, Joseph, 
Kerms, Daniel, 
Kirk, WilUam, 
Kirke, Selerin, 
Lashbrook, Thomas, 
Merryman, Charles, 
McArthur, John, 
McDonald, Archibald, 
Miller, Peter, 
McDonnel, Miles, 
McGary, Barney, 
Martin, John, 
Owens, George, 



Osborn, Ezekiel, 
Price, Samuel, 
Polly, Joseph, 
Pratt, Richard, 
Pursley, Peter, 
Quick, Ephraim, 
Reed, Robert, 
Rogers, John, 
Rennels, Barney, 
Shephard, WilUam, 
Shaw, William, 
Steel, John, 
Sligar, John, 
Smock, Jacob, 
Thompson, William, 
Tonque, John B., 
Whalen, Joseph, 
Waters, Hezekiah B., 
Younger, Ebenezer. 



CAPTAIN 2ACHARIAH TERRELL'S COMPANY 



Zachariah Terrell, Captain. 
David Adams, Lieutenant. 
James Perry, Ensign. 
James Vance, First Sergeant, 
Joshua Rutledge, Second Sergeant. 
John Buchannon, Third Sergeant. 
Isaac Hurd, Fourth Sergeant. 



Jacob Cooperider, Corporal. 
Peter Polly, Corporal. 
Gilbert Flankins, Corporal. 
Thomas Frazier, Corporal. 
Elijah Summers, Corporal. 
Jesse Isaacs, Musician. 



Armstrong, Richard, 
Applegate, Elisha, 
Burnett, WilUam, 
Bourne, Benjamin, 
Briscoe, Warner, 
Baker, Solomon, 
Biggs, Hillery, 
Blackwell, Samuel, 
Bishop, Michael, 
Blackwell, Robert, 
Connelly, Rice, 



Carico, Thomas, 
Criswell, Robert, 
Cardwell, John, 
CorUn, Benjamin, 
Dillon, John, 
Dalgarn, Allen, 
Deringer, Martin, 
Davis, Jacob, 
Davis, WilUam, 
Drake, John, 
Ewin, Squire, 



Edrington, John, 
Floyd, Elijah, 
Ford, John, 
Gray, WilUam, 
Gouch, Nicholas, 
HolUs, John P., 
Hogan, Isaac C, 
Hackworth, Joseph, 
Harris, Samuel, 
Jones, Rodham, 
Jacobs, John, 



202 



Appendix 



Kirkindal, Henry, 
Kipheart, Philip, 
Lemaston, Ewin, 
McGee, William, 
Mudd, Francis, 
Miller, Nathaniel, 
Miller, Owen, 
Myers, David, 
Nelson, William, 
Nelson, John, 
Newman, Thomas, 



Newman, John, 
Neaver, Daniel, 
Neville, James, 
Neaves, Wilham, 
Paine, Elzy, 
Roe, Nicholas, 
Rodgers, John, 
Runy, James, 
Stutt, Christian, 
Stodghill, Thomas, 
Steel, Wilham, 



Sherburne, Pascal, 
Sanders, Johnson, 
Spencer, Thomas, 
Steel, James, 
Steel, Rankin, 
Scott, James, 
Todd, Samuel, 
Terrill, John, 
Vaniel, Henry, 
Welch, William. 



CAPTAIN AARON HART'S COMPANY 



Aaron Hart, Captain. 
Moses Hart, Lieutenant. 
Nathan Tucker, Ensign. 
Arthur McGaughev, First Sergeant. 
George Siss, Second Sergeant. 
John Collins, Third Sergeant. 



John Burriss, Fourth Sergeant, 
William Huddleston, Corporal. 
William Watkins, Corporal. 
Daniel GrEENwaiT, Corporal. 
James Linville, Corporal. 
David Waddle, Corporal. 



Alexander, Thomas, 
Alexander, David B. 
Arrington, Lewis, 
Bennett, James, 
Bliss, Francis, 
Blain, James, 
Clark, Eaden, 
Clark, James, 
Case, Joseph, 
Cash, Jeremiah, 
Cast, John, 



privates 

Daugherty, Allen, 
Gaddy, John, 
Guardman, Jonathan, 
Grigsby, John, 
Graham, John, 
Huston, William, 
Hornbeck, Isaac, 
Hudgins, John, 
Johnston, Thomas, 
Killam, Samuel, 
Lender, Abraham, 



McContis, William, 
Miller, Philip, 
Price, William, 
Snyder, Fielding, 
Sipes, Henry, 
Stokes, Joel, 
Shipler, George, 
Thomas, Owen, 
Utterback, Jacob, 
Utterback, Thomas, 
Watkins, Hankerson. 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Adair, General John, borrows guns for Kentucky troops, 73, 77, 98 

Adair, General John, commands Kentucky troops, .... 71 

Adair, General John, Legislature votes thanks, 141 

Adair, General John, rupture with Jackson, 111,118 

Adair, General John, sketch of his life 168 

American forces in night battle, 23, 51 

American losses in Louisiana campaign, 123 

Appendix, roster of Kentucky MiHtia, three regiments, 177, 202 

Armstrong, Major, regiment Kentucky MiHtia, 187 

Army, British, with great armada, 2 

Army, Jackson's, strange medley, 31 

Arnaud, Major, retreat on 8th, 100, no 

Baker, Colonel, battle of 8th, 73 

Barataria, resort of Lafitte pirates, 19 

Baratarians loyal to Americans, 21 

Baratarians offer services to Jackson, 30 

Battle at night, December 23d, 41 

Battle, by assault, at Pensacola, 16 

Battle in Mobile Bay, 15 

Battle, January 8th, east bank 76 

Battle, January 8th, west bank, 99 

Battle of December 28th, artillery duel, 53 

Battle of Fort St. Philip, fleet repulsed, 125 

Battle of gunboats with barge fleet 27 

Battle of January ist, British in force repulsed, 56 

Battle, second, in Mobile Bay, 132 



204 Index 

Beale, Captain, in battle of 8th, 8i 

Beale, Captain, New Orleans Rifles 31. 72 

Beer, William, Librarian, .... v 

Bienvenue, Bayou, British invade at, 35 

British army, covert retreat, 121, 126 

British camp on Villere plantation, 38 

British capture Fort Bowyer, Mobile Bay, 132 

British designs to capture New Orleans and hold Louisiana, . 1 46 

British forces engaged in battle, January 8th, 76, 85 

British forces engaged on west bank, January 8th, 93 

British invade by Bayou Bienvenue, 38 

British losses in battle of the 8th, 84 

British losses in Louisiana campaign, 122 

British mistakes, 50, 90, loi 

British soldiers' laurels in European wars, 158 

Butler, Adjutant-general, losses in battle of 8th 84 

Carroll, General, commands Tennessee troops, 71. 77 

Carroll, General, Legislature votes thanks, 141 

Carroll, General, president Court of Inquiry, 109 

Chalmette plantation battle line, 53 

Claiborne, Governor, and Committee of Safety, 22, 40 

Claiborne, Governor, closes halls of Legislature, 139 

Cobbett, William, on battle of New Orleans, 156 

Cochrane, Admiral, British, i, 41, 90 

Coffee, General, Legislature votes thanks, 141 

Cofifee, General, Tennessee Riflemen, 43, 71, 80 

Colored troops. Major Daquin's battalion 31 

Colored troops, Major Lacoste's battalion, 31 

Cotton bales not used for breastworks, 59 

Court-martial called, 109 



Filson Club Publications 



NUMBER NINETEEN 



V ♦>• ■V' 



"^ ■».>.•».■».■».->« V'V»'»''>^'»''»''^ 



THE BATTLE 



OF 



NEW ORLEANS 



INCLUDING THE 



Previous Engagements between the Americans and the British, the 

Indians, and the Spanish which led to the Final Conflict 

on the 8th of January, 1815 



V v> y v 



V V> ^.^V»»ir«V»>'^>' 



BY 



Zachary F. Smith 

Member of The Filson Cfub 



Index 205 

Creek Indians, defeated, sue for peace, 12 

Daquin, Major, battle of 8th, 72 

Davis, Colonel, of Kentucky militia, 100, no 

Davis, Colonel, regiment Kentucky militia, 196 

Declouet, Colonel, Louisiana troops, 46, no, 137 

Disloyal utterances give alarm, 33-136 

Disorder and chaos at New Orleans, 25 

Dragoons, Mississippi, Major Hinds', 40 

Duncan, Captain, reports disloyalty, 137 

Durrett, R. T., Library, iii 

England employs entire army and navy against America on 

fall of Napoleon, 6 

English views of campaign, 47, 60 

Entrenched Une, Jackson's, on January 8th, 69 

Fishermen spies favor British, 37 

Fleet, English, anchors off Ship Island, 24 

Fleet, English Armada, sixty sail, i 

Fortified posts around New Orleans, 30 

Fort Mi ms massacre, n 

Gaither, Doctor Horatio, surgeon Kentucky regiment, . 187 

Ghent, negotiations for peace put off, 7 

Gibbs, General, killed in battle of 8th, 84 

Gleig, Captain, English historian, 47- 60 

Gleig, Captain, on battle of the 8th, 85 

Gleig, Captain, on conquest of Louisiana, 148 

Gleig, Captain, on the retreat of the British, 126 

Gray, Colonel Presley, regiment Kentucky militia, . . . .194 

Guichard, Honorable Magloire, 46, 137 

Hall, Judge, fines Jackson, 145 

Hall, Judge, suppressed by Jackson, 144 



2o6 Index 

Hamilton, Doctor Allen A., surgeon Kentucky regiment, . 196 
Harrison, Major Reuben, regiment Kentucky militia, . 179 

Henly, Captain, post opposite New Orleans, 55 

Hill, Major, British, on cause of defeat, 88 

Hinds, Major, Legislature votes thanks, 141 

Hinds, Major, of Mississippi troops, 4°, 75 

Invasion of Louisiana, British designs, 4 

Jackson appointed to command Federal army, 9 

Jackson assaults and captures Pensacola, 17 

Jackson attacks British at night on landing, 40 

Jackson, battle on west bank, 98-121 

Jackson closes Federal court, exiles judge 144 

Jackson declares martial law, 32 

Jackson defeats British at Mobile Bay, 15 

Jackson fortifies at Rodrique Canal, 54 

Jackson, General Andrew, destroys Creek Nation, 11 

Jackson marches to Mobile, then to New Orleans, .... 22 

Jackson on British conquest of Louisiana, 157 

Jackson orders suppression of Legislature, 135 

Jackson, sketch of his life 160 

Jackson's alignment on January 8th, 70-76 

Jackson's report to Secretary of War, 123 

Johnson, Major James, regiment Kentucky militia, . . . .196 

Jones, Lieutenant, in gunboat battle, 28 

Keene, General, British, 41, 80, 83 

Kentucky troops, battle on west bank, 100, no 

Kentucky troops in battle of January 8th, 74 

Kentucky troops, Louisiana women and men, noble conduct 

to, 67 

Kentucky troops; neglect of government; bad condition, 64-68 



Index 207 

Kentucky troops, reports libelous and sensational, . . . .104 

Kentucky troops, volunteer militia in War 1812-15, .... 174 

King, Major, British, killed, 83 

Labitat, General, closes legislative halls, 139 

Lacoste, Major, battle of 8th, 72 

Lafitte, Captain Jean, and his pirates, 18 

Lafitte, Captain Jean, British overtures, 20 

Lafitte, Captain Jean, reveals ah to Jackson, 21 

Lambert, General, succeeds Pakenham, 83, 92 

La tour, Major, author "Memoirs of War," 25 

Latour, Major, comments, 94, 120 

La tour. Major Lacarriere, chief engineer, 2 

Lauderdale, Colonel, of Mississippi troops, 47 

Lawrence, Colonel William, again defends Mobile, 132 

Lawrence, Colonel William, defends Mobile, 16 

Legislature, complimentary resolutions, ■. . . 141 

Legislature, Louisiana, suppressed by Jackson, 135 

Legislature orders Committee of Inquiry, 137 

Legislature report exonerates members, 140 

Lockyer, Captain of English barge fleet, 29 

Loillier, Honorable, sent beyond Jackson's Hnes, .... 144 
Louisiana troops ; Plauche's battalion, Beale's Rifles, Daquin's 
colored battalion, Lacoste's colored battalion, Barata- 

rians, General Morgan's division, 40-44 

Marequez, Governor of Florida, aids British, 14 

Marequez, Jackson's letter to, 154 

Marequez surrenders Pensacola to Jackson, 17 

Martial law at New Orleans, 32 

McRae, Colonel, of Seventh Regulars, 40 

Military operations. Northern and Middle States, 7 



2o8 Index 

Mississippi troops, 40, 75 

Mitchusson, Colonel William, regiment Kentucky militia, 179 

Mobile, British squadron repulsed at, 15 

Mobile, headquarters of Jackson, 12 

Morgan, General, at English Turn, 44, 52, 89 

Morgan, General, command on west bank, . . . .97, 103, no 

Mullins, Colonel, British, blamed for disaster, 88 

Nichols, Colonel, address to Louisianians and Kentuckians, 15 

Nichols, Colonel, British, camp at Pensacola, 14 

Nichols, Colonel, on conquest of Louisiana, 149 

Nichols, Colonel, sends emissaries to Lafitte, the pirate, . 20 

Ovations to Jackson, 145 

Pakenham, death of, was heroic, 83, 157 

Pakenham, Lord, Commander-in-chief, 3 

Pakenham, with Generals Gibbs, Keene, and Lambert, 

assumes command; arrives December 25th, . . . 56 
Parker, Lieutenant-colonel, regiment Kentucky militia, .179 

Patterson, battery on west bank, 55-76, 105 

Patterson, Commodore, battle of 23d, 42 

Peace, news of, arrives, 133 

Pensacola assaulted and captured by Jackson 16 

Pensacola, capital Spanish Florida, 12 

Pensacola made Indian recruiting camp by British, .... 14 
Pentecost, Dr. John C, surgeon Kentucky regiment, . . 179 

Peire, Major, United States Regulars 72 

Plauche, Major, uniformed men, 34. 72 

Providence and battle of New Orleans, 156 

Rence, Colonel, British, killed, 80, 83 

Rodrique Canal, Jackson's line, 52 

Ross, Colonel, American, 42, 72 



Index 209 

Seymour, Judge, William H., Latour's letter to, 119 

Shelby, Governor, sketch of his life, 163 

Ship Carolina burned with hot shot, 52 

Ship Louisiana, destructive flanking fire, 54 

Ship Louisiana saved, 52 

Slaughter, Colonel, regiment Kentucky militia, 187 

Slaughter, Colonel, sketch of his life 171 

Spies at Fisherman's Village, 35 

Sugar hogsheads, British used on redoubts, 59 

Tennessee troops in battle of January 8th, 75 

Tennessee troops, more arrive, 64 

Thomas, General, disabled with illness, 65 

Thornton, Colonel, battalion on west bank, 100 

Thornton, Colonel, British, 38 

Villere, General, plantation, British camp, 38 

Villere, Major, daring escape, 38 

Wakefield, Major, regiment Kentucky militia, 187 

Walker, Major, William, regiment Kentucky militia, . . 196 

War Department, incapacity of S 

Wells, Honorable Levi, debarred from Legislature, . . 139 

West bank, military blunders, 97 

Westbankof river, defenses begun, 54 

West bank, Patterson erects battery on, 55 

Young, Colonel, of Louisiana militia, 75 



LBJa?9 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 898 151 



